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

手机--越来越多地被称为“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，如果手机是我们如何互动的核心，也是个人对自己身份的认知方式的核心，那么当它们没有按照应有的方式工作时会发生什么？关于手机本身，甚至它在改变交流过程中的作用，已经有了相当多的科学研究；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围绕其不充分的功能。这项研究将研究手机故障带来的问题，以及采取的应对故障和修复的策略。它将有助于更好地理解蜂窝通信在教育、家庭生活和身份形成中的作用。该项目的数据将为国家自然历史博物馆(NMNH)的一个手机展览提供信息，该展览将于2019年开幕。NMNH每年平均接待700万游客，为向公众传播和增进科学技术了解提供了一个极好的论坛。乔治华盛顿大学的亚历山大·登特和乔尔·柯伊珀斯博士，以及史密森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，从两个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也与他们的设备紧密相连。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崩溃：意外转发电子邮件、删除消息和灾难性的自动更正。研究人员将通过一系列的人种学方法来完成这一分析，首先对华盛顿特区两所种族多元化的高中(400名受试者)的大二班级进行调查。从这些初步调查中，将选出30名个人进行更深入的手机“传记”。最后，除了深入访谈外，还将选择10个家庭在家中和学校进行身临其境的视频录制。数据将根据五种故障进行编码：硬件、软件、基础设施、礼仪和对话。在智能手机在世界各地激增的时候，当它们对我们的日常交流如此重要时，理解身体故障和沟通故障之间的关系变得至关重要，这不仅强化了问题，也强化了修复的形式。这项研究的材料将在学术论文中展示，以及在手机上的NMNH展览中展示。该项目对青少年对修复的洞察的调查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，以及人们对蜂窝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.