The Impact of Technological Malfunctioning, Breakdown, and Repair on Communication

手机——越来越多的“智能”手机——在美国人的交流方式中扮演着越来越重要的角色。但是，如果手机是我们互动方式的核心，也是个人对自己身份的认知方式的核心，那么当手机没有按照预期的方式工作时，会发生什么呢？关于手机本身，甚至它在改变交际过程中的作用，已经有相当多的科学研究；然而，几乎没有科学关注手机的故障和维修，这是一个奇怪的遗漏，因为手机使用的一个主要方面是它的功能不足。本研究将研究手机故障所带来的问题，以及所采取的应对和修复策略。它将有助于提高对蜂窝通信在教育、家庭生活和身份形成中的作用的理解。该项目的数据将在手机上为国家自然历史博物馆（NMNH）的一个展览提供信息，该展览将于2019年开放。每年平均接待700万人次的NMNH，提供了一个极好的论坛，向公众传播加强的科学和技术认识。乔治·华盛顿大学的亚历山大·登特和乔尔·柯伊伯斯博士，以及史密森尼国家自然历史博物馆的约书亚·贝尔博士，将合作进行一项为期三年的研究，从两方面考察手机的故障。首先，他们将研究青少年如何处理实体手机本身的故障：屏幕破裂、信号不足和软件故障。青少年与他们的移动设备有着独特的联系，他们的社交和情感世界与这些设备紧密相连。其次，他们将研究青少年如何处理通过手机发生的社交生活中断：不小心转发的电子邮件，删除的信息，以及灾难性的自动更正。调查人员将通过一系列人种学方法完成这一分析，首先是对华盛顿特区两所种族多元化高中的二年级学生（400名受试者）进行调查。从这些初步调查中，将选出30个人进行更深入的手机“传记”。最后，将选出10个家庭，在家中和学校进行沉浸式录像，并进行深度采访。数据将根据五种问题进行编码：硬件、软件、基础设施、礼仪和会话。在智能手机在世界各地普及的时代，当它们对我们的日常交流如此重要的时候，了解物理故障和通信故障相互关联的方式变得势在必行，它们不仅加剧了问题，而且加剧了修复的形式。这项研究的材料将发表在学术论文中，以及手机上的NMNH展览。该项目的调查青少年对维修的见解将帮助我们了解技术专业知识的形成，不同媒体在“媒体生态”中协同工作的方式，以及人们对细胞通信对日常生活重要性的信念。

The cellular phone - increasingly, the "smart" phone - is playing an increasingly important role in the way that Americans communicate. But if cell phones are central to how we interact, and also to the ways that individuals conceive of their identities, what happens when they do not work the way they are supposed to? There has been considerable scientific research on the cellular phone itself, and even on its role in changing communicative processes; however, there has been almost no scientific attention paid to cellular phone breakdown and repair, a strange omission since one of the primary aspects of cellular phone use revolves around its inadequate functioning. The research will study the problems that cellular phone malfunction poses, and the strategies that are adopted to cope with their breakdown and repair. It will contribute to improving understanding of the role of cellular communication in education, family life, and identity formation. Data from the project will inform an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) on the cell phone, set to open in 2019. The NMNH, which hosts an average 7 million visitors each year, provides an excellent forum for disseminating enhancing scientific and technological understanding to the public.Dr. Alexander Dent and Dr. Joel Kuipers of The George Washington University, together with Dr. Joshua Bell of The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, will collaborate in a three year study that examines the breakdown of cellular phones in two ways. First, they will look at how teenagers handle the breakdown of the physical phone itself: cracked screens, inadequate signals, and software glitches. Teenagers are uniquely connected to their cellular devices, and their social and emotional worlds are intimately tied up with their devices. Second, they will examine how teenagers handle the breakdowns in social life that take place through phones: the accidentally forwarded emails, deleted messages, and disastrous auto-corrects. The investigators will accomplish this analysis through a range of ethnographic methods, beginning with surveys of the sophomore classes of two racially diverse Washington DC high schools (400 subjects). From these initial surveys, 30 individuals will be selected for more in-depth cellular phone "biographies." And finally, 10 families will be selected for immersive video recording at home and in schools, in addition to in-depth interviews. Data will be coded according to five sorts of trouble: hardware, software, infrastructure, etiquette, and conversational. At a time when smart phones are proliferating around the world, and when their importance to our day-to-day communication is so great, it becomes imperative to understand the ways in which physical breakdown and communicational breakdown are related to one another, reinforcing not only the problems, but the shape that repairs take. Material from this study will be presented in academic papers, as well as an NMNH exhibit on the cellular phone. The project's investigation of teen insights into repair will help us understand the formation of technological expertise, the ways in which different media work together in "media ecologies," and the beliefs that people hold about the importance of cellular communication to everyday life.