Age differences rendezvousing: reminders for side-stepping

  • Authors:
  • Martin Colbert

  • Affiliations:
  • School of Computing and Information Systems, Kingston University, UK

  • Venue:
  • Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

This paper reports a diary study of the use of mobile telephones for rendezvousing by young adults (aged 18–30) and mature adults (aged 31–45) in the UK. A number of age differences were found. Specifically, 31–45s more frequently: (1) attributed problems rendezvousing to the overrunning of previous activities, and to the spontaneous performance of additional tasks (‘side-stepping’); (2) reported that ‘problem’ rendezvous resulted in unnecessary sacrifices; and (3) changed plans for the rendezvous. These differences arose, because additional family commitments encouraged 31–45s to pack their daily programme of activities more tightly than 18–30s. Mobile phones might better target 31–45s, if they, for example, enhanced To Do Lists with context-sensitive reminders, in the first instance, reminders triggered by location (GSM network cellID) and logging off from PCs.