Smartphones and online search: shifting frames in the everyday life of young people
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-03-2022-0025 |
| Published date | 23 June 2022 |
| Date | 23 June 2022 |
| Pages | 351-370 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library & information services |
| Author | Cecilia Andersson |
Smartphones and online search:
shifting frames in the everyday
life of young people
Cecilia Andersson
Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of smartphones among young people in
everyday life,focusing on the activity of online search. This paperaddresses the following research questions:
What framings of the smartphone can be identified in the way that young people use, and describe,
smartphones? What is the role of online search within these framings? By elucidating framings of the
smartphone, this paper also seeks to discuss why and how smartphone use becomes contested in various
contextsand situations.
Design/methodology/approach –The material has been produced through ethnographic fieldwork.
Focus groups and observations have been carried out with teenagers, age 13–16 years, in three schools in
Sweden. In total,39 pupils participated in the focus groups. Interviews, classroomobservations and go-alongs
have also beenperformed.
Findings –In this study, three framings of the smartphone are identified: the entertainment framing, the
easy-access framing and the challengingco-presence framing. The framings highlight the way that both the
smartphone and onlinesearch is viewed, and carried out, in various situations.The smartphone is primarily
viewed as a tool for entertainment, by adults and young people alike, yet the findings illustrate that the
smartphoneis used for more activates than what is immediately apparent.
Research limitations/implications –This study contributesto the field interested in bridgingthe gap
between in-school teachings of information literacies and out-of-school activities by showing how online
search happens in various situations. Also, to the field concerned with people’s use of general web search
engines in everydaylife.
Originality/value –This paper explores the relation between online search and smartphones, a topic
which has not been in focus in previous research. The topics of online search and smartphone use have
primarilybeen researched separately but are here researchedin conjunction.
Keywords Google, Goffman, Ethnography, Young people, Search engine, Mobile devices
Paper type Research paper
Between enabling and disturbing: smartphones and shifting frames in
everyday life
The omnipresence of mobile devices and the use of search engines is characteristic of
contemporary society. In short,we live in a culture of search (Hillis et al.,2013), where being
able to find information online anytime, anywhere and about any topic is the new norm
(Haider and Sundin, 2019;Halavais, 2018).The smartphone has been described as enabling
© Cecilia Andersson. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and
create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to
full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at
http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
Smartphones
and online
search
351
Received1 March 2022
Revised2 June 2022
Accepted3 June 2022
Informationand Learning
Sciences
Vol.123 No. 7/8, 2022
pp. 351-370
EmeraldPublishing Limited
2398-5348
DOI 10.1108/ILS-03-2022-0025
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2398-5348.htm
internet access on the go and thereby “facilitat[ing] an ‘always at hand’gateway to
information and the possibility to seek answers in real time”(Stoilova et al.,2020,p.137).
Statistics show that nearly100% of Swedish teenagers (age 13–16 years old) have their own
smartphone, and a majority of them use their smartphones daily for a number of online
activities, such as social media, listening to music and watching clips (Eriksson, 2021).
Notably, the statistics do not reveal any information about the frequency of use of general-
purpose search engines, such as Google Search. With that being said, the use of the app
YouTube, which can be considered a combination of social media and search engine, is
described as a daily occurrence for most Swedish teenagers. This indicates that online
search is part of young people’s daily activities, which has also been noted by previous
research (Davies, 2018;Kodama et al., 2017;Rutter, 2017;Sundin et al.,2017). Previous
research has highlightedthe prevalent use of smartphones by young people (Griffioen et al.,
2021;Ott, 2017;Stoilova et al.,2020) and how they search online (Bilal and Gwizdka, 2018;
Morrison and Barton, 2018;Rutter et al.,2014). Yet little is known about the situations in
which smartphones are used for searching, as the topics have mostly been researched
separately rather than inconjunction. This paper seeks to address that gap by investigating
the role of smartphones in everyday situations among young people. Such situations
include: in the classroom and around the dinner table. Focusing specifically on the role of
search in relation to smartphoneuse.
Previous research has shown the benefits of using Erving Goffman’s (1974) concept of
frame analysis as a lens for the study of young people’s online searching. In particular, the
concept has provided a means for unpacking multiple meanings attached to the concept of
search and how different aspects give meaning to the activity (Andersson a, 2017;Sjöberg,
2018). Therefore,this study draws on frame analysis and is guided by the following research
questions:
RQ1. What framings of the smartphonecan be identified in the way that young people
use and describe smartphones?
RQ2. What is the role of onlinesearch within these framings?
Writing from the field of information studies, online search denotes the use of general-
purpose search engines, suchas Google Search or Bing (Haider and Sundin, 2019). Here, the
term is used in a broad sense and includes searching on YouTube and social media.
The study explores the topic through an ethnographic approach where fieldwork has been
done in three schools in Sweden. Sweden is an interesting setting for such an investigation
as smartphone penetration among teenagers is high and pupils enjoy a high degree of
independence within the school system; there are, for example, no overarching bans on the
use of smartphones(Ott, 2017).
Previous research
Smartphones and online search in society
This study focuses on smartphonesand online search in everyday life. From such a vantage
point, attention is turned to habits, routines and that which is taken for granted. Within
research on everyday life, it is often referred to as that which is mundane (Ehn et al., 2016;
Morris and Murray, 2018;Scott, 2009). The mundaneness of activities and objects allow
them to fade into the background and, to a certain extent, become invisible. Within
information studies, online search has been identified as just that, a mundane, everyday
activity that has become invisible (Andersen, 2018;Haider and Sundin, 2019). This
development, where online search has become mundane, is enmeshed with the spread of
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