LECTURE 14 Values, Perceptions, and Practices in Technology Adoption and Use i203: Social & Organizational Issues of Information 10/25/2015

Social Network Thresholds  Personal network thresholds (Valente 1996)  The number of members within personal network that must have adopted a given innovation before one will adopt Accounts for some variation in overall adoption time Opinion leaders have lower thresholds Opinion leaders influence individuals with higher thresholds

Structural Network Diffusion  Weak Ties Revisited  Centrality  Structural Equivalence

Critiques of the Network Approach  Other factors may be more important than just the network structure:  Example: Tetracycline diffusion (Coleman, Katz et al. 1966) Marketing may have been most important factor for explaining adoption.  Rationality of actors is not necessarily expressed– treated as a sort of “black box”

Overall, what does the diffusion of innovation research help us to understand?  Can be used at the micro-level to track individuals who are targeted members for an innovation  Can be used at the meso and macro-level to consider economic development, technological advances, or other processes.

Common Mistakes in Applying Diffusion Research  Treating diffusion only as dissemination or marketing  Confusing influence with status  Inadequate evaluation of the issue in its own context, as well as the surrounding social structure and perceptions of the innovation.

Stanley & Leonardi Perceptions & Uses of Technology

Stages of Adoption  Everett Rogers (1995)  Awareness  Interest  Evaluation  Trial  Adoption 8

Probit Model X* Not Adopt Adopt

In Brief: Social Constructionism  ‘De-centering Technologies’  Users (and non-users) as active participants in making information and technology what it is "Not only do groups construct peoples' meaning of technology, but they also continually define and reposition it throughout changing contexts.“ (Leonardi 2003)

Beyond Access (Stanley) “Psychosocial Barriers to Computer Literacy”

Stanley – Research Questions 1. Why are CTCs not being used? 2. What factors, other than cost, may act as barriers to computer literacy?

Stanley – Methods & Sample  Methods  questionnaire  semi-structured interview  direct observation  Sample  80 new users, 20 non-users  San Diego area  Hispanic  low-income

Stanley – Non-Cost-Related Obstacles  Relevance  ‘Comfort Zone’  Self-Concept

Leonardi – Problematizing ‘New Media’ Two Goals: 1. ‘Problematize our discourse about technology by taking communication practices seriously.’ 2. ‘Examine the uses and perceptions of technology in a cultural group largely under-represented in communication technology scholarship.’

Latino Culture  Individualism vs. Collectivism  Pride - ‘orgullo’  Simpatia - 'behaviors that promote smooth or harmonious relationships'  High Power Distance - 'respect for and loyalty to one's superiors'

Leonardi – Methods & Sample  Methods  7 focus groups  Sample  78 1st generation working-class Latinos  Western US  custodial workers  Spanish speaking

Leonardi – Cell Phones  Enhances communication  Expectation of having one  Not perceived as a luxury, but a necessity  Aware of limitations of technology

Leonardi – Computers & Internet  Lumped together in participants minds  Aware of functions  Perception of difficulty, learning barriers  'intractable nature’

Leonardi – Findings ‘participants did not view computers and the internet as technologies that helped to keep people connected.’ ‘use of computers and the internet was viewed by participants as having a negative impact on inter- personal relationship, especially within the family.’

Leonardi – Findings cont’d 'unlike cell phones, which encourage communication outside face-to-face contexts, participants viewed computers and the internet as promoting individuality and removing the user from social live.‘ question of pride - 'must the user forgo the use of his/her native language in order to access a new technology?'

Leonardi – Summing Up  ‘New Media’ doesn’t work  Cell phones meshed well with cultural values  Computers & internet were seen as conflicting with cultural values

What Are the ‘Take-Aways’?  This is not just a Digital Divide / Inclusion issue!  Predicting perception & use is difficult.  Technology descriptors, buzzwords idealize use and perception, do not always capture ‘real’  Stakeholders are key.

Design Strategies  Value Sensitive Design  U. of Washington iSchool  Batya Friedman 

Next Time…  Final Paper Planning  Come to Thursday’s class with potential project ideas.  Additional Office Hours  Wed. (tomorrow) – 1-3pm, Room 2  Thurs. – 4-6pm – Room 305A  Fri. – 1-3pm – Room 305A