[E] Mobile Phone Use Cultivates and

Maintains Social Connectedness

Dominic Mentor
Columbia University, USA

INTRODUCTION
This chapter concentrates on the relationship between mobile phone use and social connectedness,
emphasizing the various ways in which people use mobile communication as a means to cultivate and
maintain social connectedness. The chapter explores the possible connection and relevance of social
connectedness through mobile communication on a personal, group and macro level. Individuals are
constantly shifting their roles and identities as they use their mobile phones; from personal to group,
social to political, philanthropic, and civic participation as they traverse these different spaces. Included
is a review of studies on how various mobile engagements, like mobile messaging, voice, video, social
media and texting, is used by individuals. All of which has been repurposed within some formal and
informal organizations for a variety of service objectives, including mobile learning with tacit or
unintentional social connectedness embedded. The nurturing of social connectedness through mobile
engagement is essential in people’s lives as it reveals their ongoing and affective exchanges and
experiences with a single friend, family member(s), an event, cause, artifact or a group. The cultivation
of social connectedness can be used as a proxy for socio-emotional goals that can feed strong perceptions
or real associations for people of all ages. The conceivable positive influence of social connectedness
through multimedia or textual mobile messaging could be used to create a sense of affiliation and has a
perceived usefulness for personal, civic, as well as academic and work life engagement.

BACKGROUND
The advent in 2001 and maturation standard of Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) in 2002, extended
text messaging to include, photos, animations (gifs), audio and /or video clips (MMS London, 2016).
WAP Mobile communication services like Mixit, WhatsApp, and Kakao, broke the mobile messaging
hold from mobile service providers, offering agnostic, and globally free access to one’s contacts and
Social Media Network Services (SMNS) communities. With features that encompasses voice notes,
synchronous voice and video calling, to time set message deletion as with Snap Chat, all of which
presents the ability to communicate with others and can serve as a powerful means to foster a sense of
connectedness. Lam, (2012), and Ling (2015) as well as Cumiskey & Ling (2015) offers examples of
how the mobile phone hosts a way for improving team attitude, playful identity, and social cohesion.
While other multimodal messages are sent during a live or televised event, cultivating co-presence (Cui,
2016; Schroeder, 2010). The agnostic mobile messaging services have become the communication
method of choice for building, as well as maintaining social connectedness, but also aids how individuals
and groups traverse the different spaces of their lives.

Various definitions are touted for the concept of social connectedness that range from defining it as a
sense of belonging, affiliations or associations (Chayko, 2007; Flomenbaum, 2008; Visser, Dadlani, van
Bel, and Yarosh, 2010). Wei and Lo (2006) cites Teixeira (1992) as defining social connectedness as
maintaining “interpersonal, community, and general social ties” (p. 62). While the Jamieson report (2007)
refers to social connectedness as how people come together, interact, and network, indicating electronic
communication as an all-important factor in establishing and maintaining social connectedness. Berkman,
Glass, Brissette, and Seeman (2000) stated that it is widely recognized that social relationships and

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
affiliation have powerful effects on physical and mental health (p. 843), while Wyn & Cuervo et al.,
(2005) saw “the emerging technologies as enhancing social connectedness through the internet by means
of web-blogs, social websites such as MySpace, and through mobile phone technologies via Short
Message Systems (SMS)” (Martino, 2007, pp. 6-7). Chayko (2007) not only provides an overview of
technologically generated communities, but also discusses the sociological implications of mobile
technology as it pertains to a rise in personal availability and, more importantly, societal cohesion (p.
373).

Register and Herman views the concept of social connectedness as forming the basis for all human
existence and similarly to the 2007 New Zealand report, indicates the phenomenon of connectedness that
brings quality of life (Register & Herman, 2010, p.53). Whereas Lee, Draper and Lee sees social
connectedness as “an attribute of the self that reflects cognitions of enduring interpersonal closeness with
the social world” (2001). Other researchers asked, if social media or video calling is the new face-to-face
(F2F) or if social connectedness can be derived from SMNS like Facebook or other online interactions
and be linked to overall well-being (Grieve, Indian, Witteveen, Tolan, & Marrington, 2013; Lundy, &
Drouin, 2016). Additionally, Krastel, Bassellier, and Ramaprasad, (2015) found an important use and role
of social features in online music sites, mostly accessed via mobile, as positively enabling social
connectedness. Research studies from medical health to educational environments, and psychology to
public health, all point to the importance and benefits of social connectedness (Berkman, Glass, Brissette,
& Seeman 2000; Richards, 2016). The medical field point out faster recovery rates from patients who
have strong social connectedness ties (Cheung, Sedikides, & Wildschut, 2016), while numerous cases of
educational benefits, from Henderson & Guy, 2016; Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula, & Sharples, 2004;
Nolan, Hendricks, & Towell, 2016; Yoo, Miyamoto, & Ryff, 2016 have also proven as successful for
enhancing teaming and success in an academic context (Lam, 2012; Walton & Cohen, 2011). The latter
examples signify the many ways social connectedness can be defined, or leveraged in different contexts.

SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS – MOBILE COMMERCE, GAMING, AND HEALTH

Issues, Controversies, Problems
Even though a unanimous definition for social connectedness does not necessarily exist, delineations
centralize around a sense of belonging (Richards, 2016; Satici, Uysal, & Deniz, 2016) in a virtual, real or
abstract sense with either people or an artifact. Controversially, virtual connectedness has become the new
face to face. Especially from mobile phone video. Whereas mobile messaging, including SMS/texting, as
well as social media updates through mobile has increased dramatically. According to Dag Kittlaus, co-
creator of Siri, SMNS and mobile messaging dominated people’s attention and time on their phones
(2016). The cross-platform mobile phone messaging services like Snapchat, We Chat, Facebook
Messenger, Line, Kik, Twitter or Viber, has overtaken texting and phone calls, and have gained a
prominent place in the social and communication spheres (Statistica, 2014). These apps have similar
features of being able to share texts, images, video and other multimedia artifacts. SMNS like Facebook,
Google Hangout, or the Chinese WeChat, Weibo, RenRen or QQ have all been optimized for mobile
access. WeChat has also been described as more than a portal for performing mobile commercial
transactions, ordering taxi services, booking and delivering geo-targeted cinema tickets and coupons,
processing person-to-person money transfers, and the ability to make utility payments or even accessing
city services (Chan, 2015, Russell, 2015).

Whereas Hansen, Shneiderman, and Smith in 2011 contended email as the lifeblood of communication,
professionals from medical, educational or commercial arenas, have drawn their attention to the rise in
mobile messaging, accessing information via SMNS as well as other services via mobile phones (Lee &
Phang, 2015; Moreno-Munoz, Bellido-Outeirino, Siano, & Gomez-Nieto, 2016; Wu, 2016). While the
proclivity to mobile messaging is captured in the aforementioned studies, mobile communication can also
nurture a connectedness or a sense of affiliation. Similarly, Chris Messina credited with initiating the

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
creator of Twitter’s hashtag (#), indicates that he “can find a community of 100,000 people online,
whereas a couple of years ago I would have felt like I was the only one.” There is also a daily practice of
routine maintenance of connectedness (Al-Failakawi, 2006; Chiluwa, 2008; Deng, 2013; Horwitz, 2014;
Mbah & Ogbonna; 2012) through updates, ‘snaps’ or snap stories’, postings, ‘likes’, or ‘pokes’, with
SMNS and Mobile messaging services recording more than 60 billion messages a day as compared to 20
billion SMS text messages (Goode, 2016).

As with online social media, or mobile gaming, mobile phone communication provides the user with a
virtual presence and on-the-go accessibility. Pokemon Go blends the virtual and physical realm through
low level, but effective augmented reality. Players are tasked to walk to landmarks so as to earn points or
get to Pokemons. The virtual presence holds true for one-on-one mobile gaming like Words with Friends,
or multiplayer cross platform games like Spaceteam, Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Real Racing 3, or Super
Stickman Golf. In short, the benefits of mobile phone engagement, offer a new, interpersonal means to
stay involved with others (Crang, & Mohamad, 2016; Freeman, Bardzell, & Bardzell, 2016).

Various studies (Kim, 2016; Kim, Wang, & Oh, 2016; Longhurst, 2016) indicate that an individual’s
identity can be made up of self-regulated mobile interactions. In these diverse ways, mobile
communication aids agency in managing social networks, and grants instant access to users’ personal or
organizational affiliations, while strengthening bonds and community spirit (Konok, Gigler, Bereczky &
Miklósi, 2016). With mobile messaging apps and SMNS’es, the mobile phone contacts’ list has grown
and expanded beyond the initial family and friendship circle to include ephemeral contacts, businesses or
organizations.

Organizational mobile engagement is situated within a different domain of practice from individual
messaging, like businesses, public sector organizations or health and education entities. This type of
engagement also includes mobile communication in many forms beyond organizational promotions.
Numerous sectors of society have shown a growing interest in migrating mobile phone engagement habits
to their or the clients’ advantage. In the health sector, appointment reminders or sexual health texting
(Rana, van den Berg, Lamy, & Beckwith, 2016; McIver, Dyda, McNulty, Knight, Wand, & Guy, 2016),
or monitoring health (Berrouiguet, Baca-García, Brandt, Walter, & Courtet, 2016; Hannan, Brooten,
Page, Galindo, & Torres, 2016) including smoking cessation with mobile gaming (DeLaughter,
Sadasivam, Kamberi, English, Seward, Chan, Volkman, Amante & Houston, 2016; Jamalian, Mezei,
Levitan, Garber, Hammer, & Kinzer, 2012) have been researched. The medical health focus of the
literature covers the same themes many an organization or person can benefit from as a whole. With
reminders for appointments, taking medication, or offering paramedical support, discreet sexual health
information services, shows the individual’s ability to host connections to multiple environments.
Although the aforementioned studies are different in terms of their purpose and focus, it is also the size of
the organization, private or the number of participants involved that actuate the basic set up, structure and
power of the mobile engagement processes. These lessons are also relevant for any migration of use from
personal messaging to institutional, promotional or wide scale mobile macro engagement.

From Micro to Macro Mobile Communication with a Cause

Macro level mobile engagement range from political campaigns, emergency responses or the
revolutionary moments in northern Africa during the Spring of 2011. With continuous innovation, and
creative repurposing of mobile apps and tools, a connectedness to socio-political issues abound around
the globe. From the 2012 French election, 2016 USA presidential campaign to Obama’s first election
campaign when he announced his VP candidate via mobile communication (Baumgartner, Mackay,
Morris, Otenyo, Powell, Smith, & Waite, 2010; Kenski, & Conway, 2016; Wells, Van Thomme, Maurer,
Hanna, Pevehouse, Shah, & Bucy, 2016; West, 2012), are all examples of macro level mobile

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
engagement. According to Baumgartner, et al (2010) and West (2012), Obama’s campaign made use of
texting and SMSN to identify and communicate with supporters, but also to raise money and coordinate
virtual gatherings simultaneously across the country. According to West and the Mobile Economy Project
(ibid.), mobile phones could expand mobilizing opportunities and increase citizen participation in civic
issues, but could also cultivate government accountability.

In the words of the researcher John Donner “mobile phones accelerate urban metabolism" (2006), and in
the case of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, the use of mobile phones heightened the
demonstrators’ ability to coordinate protests as well as facilitate and disseminate the flow of information
(Potts, 2011). With the rise of mobile phones, people are able to micro-coordinate (Ling, 2008, Mentor,
2014) more than just rendezvous’ points or revolutions, but their daily activities from ordering food, car
services, mobile payments, or philanthropic support of a cause. Some of these affordances were re-
modeled as a powerful macro-coordinating tool during various campaigns ranging from Black Lives
Matter protests to elections. Now, with relative ease, a whole country’s population can connect and
mobilize to rally around a single agenda. Moving from one-to-one communication models, to one-to-
many and many-to-many communication connectedness, like the mass protests and toppling of
government examples mentioned earlier, there has been powerful utility in many modern day scenarios.
For example, monitoring for free and fair elections in a crowdsourcing manner in any country with
mobile phone infrastructure; from Kenya (Jeffery, 2011) to hopefully the USA.
Other examples of crowdsourcing through mobile phones are fast being adopted all around the
world from crime reporting to live video broadcasts via mobile phone. Some examples include: South
Africa’s Corrupt Watch (2012), Kenya’s Hatari Crowdmapping of various kinds of crime, mobile
technology for crowdsourced agricultural development (Baumüller, 2013), Atlanta’s MapATL for crime
statistics, and New York City’s DOT report a street maintenance reporting tool. Live mobile broadcast
featured prominently in the global political arena in 2016 from legislative sit-ins in the USA protesting
about gun violence (Folkenfilk, 2016; Peterson and Andrews, 2016) to the Turkish president debunking a
coup and calling on the Turkish people to take to the streets in protest (Sherr, 2016). Live video recording
and broadcasting with tools like Meerkat or Periscope, are used to document people’s lives, documenting
police brutality, a live show or kayaking down the Chicago river. One can but only hope that the
continued rise of live mobile recordings and broadcasting will become part of police training, protocol or
naturally evoke a sense of a panopticon in those police personnel who need it. These efforts rally the
cognitive surplus (Shirky, 2010) of communities and unleashes the power of ordinary people by
converting the mobile phone from a one-on-one communication device to a one-to-many mass media
tool. Issues of corruption, collating ideas and having people’s voices heard by mobile means, impacts
mobile civic engagement. People can report incidents which in turn builds consensus and connectedness
to and with a cause. The new and unique ways that a previously private device can now be employed and
affect change, is inspirational and speaks to the empowerment of people converted to participative
citizens.
Problematically, many organizations and government entities have still not wholly embraced the wide
spread adoption and practice of mobile service delivery. While bars and businesses, many educational
institutions, live events or television shows invite you to interact with them via social media with photos
or tweets, government departments are still neglecting to offer mobile friendly services or are still playing
catch up in offering mobile first service designs.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

There is a strong need for government agencies to partner with businesses, higher education and/or
software companies and software engineers. This would cater for engaging with any of the
aforementioned stakeholders’ constituents, but also contribute to and promote social accountability. Many
examples of multi-disciplinary efforts abound, with three examples to mention (a) a project that leveraged

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
technology graduate students in New York City to build solutions or improvements in partnership with
the New York Mayor’s Office of Adult Education (Mentor and Murdoch, 2011), (b) The World
Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (AACE, 2015)
and the Obama administration’s successful appeals to have software technology companies and
individuals fix and improve the Healthcare web portal (Dawes, Vidiasova, & Parkhimovich, 2016).

Given the mobile phone as the go-to, in-hand device for all of the aforementioned, this rapid movement
has also informed a mobile first design framework (Van Esselstuyn, 2015). There certainly has been an
increase in the adoption and adjustment to mobile first designs for websites, however, the need is still
massive for a mobile first e-learning design approach (Curinga & Svaranos, 2016) as well as mobile first
usability studies. The latter could aid and perhaps speed up the development of government and other
organizational electronic engagement, which in turn could lead to better service offerings via mobile
devices and improvements to quality of life offerings.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

This chapter looked at the concept of social connectedness and the ways it may have been revealed in the
studies referenced in this chapter. The categorization of the different mobile communication can be
categorized into three groups of pairs, groups and macro levels. That categorization can be used to assist
contextualizing the scope of micro or macro mobile communication and examine how the mobile
engagement projects can be designed and delivered in different contexts.
The literature reviewed exemplifies that there is quantitative value in the number of mobile engagements.
However, the socio-emotional aspects are prevalent, but cannot necessarily be quantified. What is lacking
is a multifaceted mixed methods approach and analysis that looks at reported perceptions of socio-
emotional value of social connectedness. Additionally, how trust circles have expanded on a previously
considered private device via SMNS and if quality of life was truly impacted beyond just civic service
delivery, but also through socio-emotional elements. Further research into the deeper causal relationships
that exists between organizations and the individual participant is needed. Organizational and macro level
mobile engagement needs to be interrogated beyond commercial interest, but also how perceptions of
social connectedness possible offer intangible support. Additonally, a delphi method could help establish
a guide or definition for the concept of social connectedness which could offer further research direction
with clarity, especially with the multitude of mobile devices and tools from which connectedness could be
cultivated and maintained.

With the proliferation of mobile devices, apps and repurposing of handheld device tools, as well as the
ability to collect big data through mobile engagement, there is a continued need for big data research
studies. The quantitative approach could delve into granular or big data per user, group or cause, while the
qualitative approach could offer insights via semi-structured individual or group interviews, focus groups,
using a snowball method, or grounded theory. While quantitative analysis could be applied to all mobile
communication or activity logs, short or long form surveys could be conducted prior to or after interviews
to aid triangulation or crystallization of data. Mobile surveys could aid research input and design, if it
takes a mobile first design and delivery approach, which could leverage a conditional method of posting
questions, one at a time, and providing a question based on the previous response. Conditional surveys
taken on a mobile device provides manageable bite size questions and response fields and could aid a
deeper digging into specific aspects of the research area that needs to be investigated. However,
completing a text survey could be influenced by the form factors and element interactivity of the mobile
devices, due to physical constraints. The multitude of considerations for the varying form factors found in
different geographic locations however could be overcome by a web responsive mobile first design.
As mobile digital geographies grow, become more complex and condensed at the same time, through
SMNS and other mobile device activity, data visualization could be leveraged to offer snapshots of
moments in time, or offer insights and analysis into social networks in a far quicker manner than

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
longitudinal studies. Another pictorial method that could be employed in conjunction with or separate
from data visualization would be concepts maps for future mobile social connectedness research designs.

Additionally, Özçınar’s 2016’s research method of visualizing the evolution of mobile learning research
through a co-citation analysis paradigm could be used as means to conduct and map research on social
connectedness through users’ mobile device use. However, capturing the research of human interaction
through mobile computing systems, would not address gaps or needs of users. There would be a need to
add to the co-citation approach with a specific focus on one element. Be it individual users, groups,
causes or even specific devices, countries or regions within a country or the world. By zoning in on a
specific focus, would offer data integrity to the investigations of mobile social interactions. Different
countries have a multitude of service providers, competitive markets and costs that impact the use of
mobile devices. Thus, research framing or foci will differ by country, and in the case of the USA and
many countries, even by States or regions. Other demographic or genogram aspects could also be
investigated to offer cross-sectional or comparative studies where factors such as access to mobile
devices, usage according to age, family make-up, birth order or gender. In terms of information science,
further research could focus on particular devices or a device, activity trends, or how social connectedness
can be leveraged for education or exploited for mobile commerce.

CONCLUSION
Many more organizations have and want to dive into the use of mobile device engagement,
(Chavin, Ginwala, & Spear, 2012; Muench, Stolk-Cooke, Van Morgenstern, Kuerbis, & Markle, 2014;
Nielsen & Webb, 2011; Quin, 2013; West, 2014), but lack the theoretical and/or technical expertise. The
size and shape of these organizations vary and that bears upon the context and operational process of each
organization’s mobile intervention. The studies reviewed in this chapter show how mobile messaging
increases social connectedness and improves people’s quality of life. It must be noted that although life
benefits and community affordances are possible because one’s phone is always available; feelings of
connectedness are not caused by the mobile phone itself. Fostering a sense of community is dependent on
the reciprocity of communication initiated via the mobile phone, be it by voice calling, messaging or
SMNS activity. Many of the processes and lessons learned from the literature reviewed, be it from mobile
messaging research conducted within the health care settings or the political arena, could be applied to the
workplace, educational, local city or federal governmental settings to offer socio-emotional support or
services that could aid academic success and social well-being.

REFERENCES

AACE (2015, October). E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government,

Healthcare, and Higher Education (Vol. 2015, No. 1).
Baumgartner, J. C., Mackay, J. B., Morris, J. S., Otenyo, E. E., Powell, L., Smith, M. M., ... & Waite, B.
C. (2010). Communicator-in-chief: How Barack Obama used new media technology to win the
White House. J. A. Hendricks, & R. E. Denton Jr (Eds.). Lexington Books .
Berrouiguet, S., Baca-García, E., Brandt, S., Walter, M., & Courtet, P. (2016). Fundamentals for Future
Mobile-Health (mHealth): A Systematic Review of Mobile Phone and Web-Based Text
Messaging in Mental Health.Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18(6), e135.
Chan, C. (2015, August 6). When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China.
Retrieved August 06, 2016, from http://a16z.com/2015/08/06/wechat-china-mobile-first/
Cheung, W. Y., Sedikides, C., & Wildschut, T. (2016). Induced nostalgia increases optimism (via social-
connectedness and self-esteem) among individuals high, but not low, in trait
nostalgia. Personality and Individual Differences, 90, 283-288.

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Crang, M., & Mohamad, S. M. H. (2016). 17 ResearchingVirtual Communities. Key Methods in
Geography, 270.
Cui, D. (2016). Beyond “connected presence”: Multimedia mobile instant messaging in close relationship
management. Mobile Media & Communication, 4(1), 19-36.
Cumiskey, K. M., & Ling, R. (2015). The social psychology of mobile communication. The Handbook of
the Psychology of Communication Technology pages, 228-246.
Curinga, M. X., & Saravanos, A. (2016). Mobile First E-Learning. In D. Mentor (Ed.), Handbook of
Research on Mobile Learning in Contemporary Classrooms(pp. 23-36). Hershey, PA:
Information Science Reference. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-0251-7.ch002
Dawes, S. S., Vidiasova, L., & Parkhimovich, O. (2016). Planning and designing open government data
programs: An ecosystem approach.Government Information Quarterly, 33(1), 15-27.
DeLaughter, K. L., Sadasivam, R. S., Kamberi, A., English, T. M., Seward, G. L., Chan, S. W., Volkman,
J.E., Amante, D. & Houston, T. K. (2016). Crave-Out: A Distraction/Motivation Mobile Game to
Assist in Smoking Cessation. JMIR serious games, 4(1), e3.
Folkenfilk, D. (2016, June 23). When TV Cameras Shut Down, House Democrats Live-Stream Their Sit-
In. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/06/23/483205687/house-democrats-deliver-
sit-in-via-digital-platforms
Freeman, G., Bardzell, J., & Bardzell, S. (2016, May). Revisiting Computer-Mediated Intimacy: In-Game
Marriage and Dyadic Gameplay in Audition. InProceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on
Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 4325-4336). ACM.
Goode, L. (2016, April 12). Messenger and WhatsApp process 60 billion messages a day, three times
more than SMS. Retrieved June 19, 2016, from
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/12/11415198/facebook-messenger-whatsapp-number-messages-
vs-sms-f8-2016
Grieve, R., Indian, M., Witteveen, K., Tolan, G. A., & Marrington, J. (2013). Face-to-face or Facebook:
Can social connectedness be derived online?.Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 604-609.
Hannan, J., Brooten, D., Page, T., Galindo, A., & Torres, M. (2016). Low-Income First-Time Mothers
Effects of APN Follow-up Using Mobile Technology on Maternal and Infant Outcomes. Global
Pediatric Health, 3, 2333794X16660234.
Henderson, D. X., & Guy, B. (2016). Social connectedness and its implication on student–teacher
relationships and suspension. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and
Youth, 1-7.
Jamalian, A., Mezei, J., Levitan, P., Garber, A. Hammer, J., & Kinzer. C. K. (2012). The Lit2Quit Mobile
App: Evoking Game-based Physiological Effects that Mimic Smoking. In Martin, C., Ochsner,
A., & Squire, K. (Eds.), Proceedings, GLS 8.0 Games + Learning + Society Conference (pp. 484-
485). Madison, WI: ETC Press.
Kenski, K., & Conway, B. A. (2016). Social Media and Elections. Praeger Handbook of Political
Campaigning in the United States [2 volumes], 191.
Kim, H. S. (2016). What drives you to check in on Facebook? Motivations, privacy concerns, and mobile
phone involvement for location-based information sharing. Computers in Human Behavior, 54,
397-406.
Kim, J. (2012, June 28). 10 Examples of Mobile Health Around the World. Retrieved July 10, 2016, from
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2286628/data-center/75802-10-Examples-of-Mobile-
Health-Around-the-World.html#slide1-6
Kim, Y., Wang, Y., & Oh, J. (2016). Digital media use and social engagement: how social media and
smartphone use influence social activities of college students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and
Social Networking, 19(4), 264-269.

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Konok, V., Gigler, D., Bereczky, B. M., & Miklósi, Á. (2016). Humans' attachment to their mobile
phones and its relationship with interpersonal attachment style. Computers in Human
Behavior, 61, 537-547.

Krastel, Z., Bassellier, G., & Ramaprasad, J. (2015). Enabling Social Connectedness: The Role of Social
Features on Online Music Sites. In Conference on Information Systems and Technology
(CIST) (p. 2).

Lam, C. (2012). The efficacy of text messaging to improve social connectedness and team attitude in
student technical communication projects: An experimental study. Journal of Business and
Technical Communication, 1050651912468888.

Lee, R. M., Draper, M., & Lee, S. (2001). Social connectedness, dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors,
and psychological distress: Testing a mediator model. [doi:10.1037/0022-0167.48.3.310]. Journal
of Counseling Psychology, 48(3), 310-318.
Lee, S. Y. T., & Phang, C. W. D. (2015). Leveraging social media for electronic commerce in Asia:
Research areas and opportunities. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 14(3), 145-
149.
Longhurst, R. (2016). Mothering, digital media and emotional geographies in Hamilton, Aotearoa New
Zealand. Social & Cultural Geography, 17(1), 120-139.
Lundy, B. L., & Drouin, M. (2016). From social anxiety to interpersonal connectedness: Relationship
building within face-to-face, phone and instant messaging mediums. Computers in Human
Behavior, 54, 271-277.
McIver, R., Dyda, A., McNulty, A. M., Knight, V., Wand, H. C., & Guy, R. J. (2016). Text message
reminders do not improve hepatitis B vaccination rates in an Australian sexual health
setting. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 23(e1), e88-e92.
Mentor, D. (2014). Book Chapter Mobile phone use enhances social connectedness. In Z. Yan (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (Volumes 1, 2, & 3). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Publication date: January 2015
Mentor, D., & Murdoch, D. (2011, October). We Are New York Social Media for Adult Education. In E-
Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher
Education (Vol. 2011, No. 1, pp. 1499-1504).

Moreno-Munoz, A., Bellido-Outeirino, F. J., Siano, P., & Gomez-Nieto, M. A. (2016). Mobile social
media for smart grids customer engagement: Emerging trends and challenges. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, 53, 1611-1616.
Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Marsch, L. A., & Bartels, S. J. (2016). The future of mental health
care: peer-to-peer support and social media.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 25(02), 113-
122.
Nolan, S., Hendricks, J., & Towell, A. (2016). ADOLESCENT MOTHERS'USE OF SOCIAL
NETWORKING SITES CREATING POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH OUTCOMES. Australian
Nursing and Midwifery Journal,23(11), 50.
Özçınar, H. (2016). Visualizing the Evolution of Mobile Learning Research. In D. Mentor (Ed.),
Handbook of Research on Mobile Learning in Contemporary Classrooms (pp. 1-22). IGI Global.
"People, Things and Ideas That Will Change Our Lives in 2016." THE RED BULLETIN MAGAZINE Jan.
2016: 27-45. The Red Bulletin. Red Bull Media House, Jan. 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.
Peterson, K., & Andrews, N. (2016, June 22). With TV Cameras Off, House Democrats Broadcast Their
Own Sit-In. Retrieved July 17, 2016, from http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/06/22/house-
democrats-stage-sit-in-protest-for-gun-bill-vote/
Piwek, L., & Joinson, A. (2016). “What do they snapchat about?” Patterns of use in time-limited instant
messaging service. Computers in Human Behavior,54, 358-367.

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
The History of Multimedia Messaging (MMS) - MMS London. (2016). Retrieved June 19, 2016,
from http://www.mmsworldlondon.com/history.htm
Rana, A. I., van den Berg, J. J., Lamy, E., & Beckwith, C. G. (2016). Using a Mobile Health Intervention
to Support HIV Treatment Adherence and Retention Among Patients at Risk for Disengaging with
Care. AIDS patient care and STDs, 30(4), 178-184.
Richards, L. (2016). For Whom Money Matters Less: Social Connectedness as a Resilience Resource in
the UK. Social indicators research, 125(2), 509-535.
Rose, C. (2016, June 16). Dag Kittlaus. Retrieved June 19, 2016, from
https://charlierose.com/videos/28249
Russell, J. (2016, March 17). Messaging app WeChat is becoming a mobile payment giant in China.
Retrieved August 07, 2016, from https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/17/messaging-app-wechat-is-
becoming-a-mobile-payment-giant-in-china/
Satici, S. A., Uysal, R., & Deniz, M. E. (2016). Linking social connectedness to loneliness: The mediating
role of subjective happiness. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 306-310.
Schroeder, R. (2010). Mobile phones and the inexorable advance of multimodal connectedness. New
Media & Society, 12(1), 75-90.
Sherr, Ian. "The Smartphone Has Become the Center of Our Political Lives." CNET. CBS Interactive Inc.,
15 July 2016. Web. 17 July 2016.
Statista. (2014, December 20). Number of mobile messaging users worldwide 2014 | The Statistics
Portsal. Retrieved August 21, 2016, from http://www.statista.com/statistics/369260/mobile-
messenger-users/
Visser, T., Dadlani, P., van Bel, D., & Yarosh, S. (2010, April). Designing and evaluating affective
aspects of sociable media to support social connectedness. In CHI'10 Extended Abstracts on
Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 4437-4440). ACM.
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and
health outcomes of minority students. Science,331(6023), 1447-1451.
Weinswig, D. (2015). The Changing Face of Mobile Payments (pp. 1-9). Hong Kong: Fung Business
Intelligence Center - Global Retail & Technology. Retrieved August 6, 2015, from
http://docplayer.net/15493532-The-changing-face-of-mobile-payments.html
Wells, C., Van Thomme, J., Maurer, P., Hanna, A., Pevehouse, J., Shah, D. V., & Bucy, E. (2016).
Coproduction or cooptation? Real-time spin and social media response during the 2012 French and
US presidential debates.French Politics, 14(2), 206-233.
West, D. (2012). M-Campaigning: Mobile Technology and Public Outreach.Issues in technology
innovation, 15, 1-10.
Wu, L. (2016). Understanding the Impact of Media Engagement on the Perceived Value and Acceptance
of Advertising within Mobile Social Networks. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 16(1), 59-73.
Yoo, J., Miyamoto, Y., & Ryff, C. D. (2016). Positive Affect, Social Connectedness, and Healthy
Biomarkers in Japan and the US. Emotion, Jun 27, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000200

ADDITIONAL READINGS
Anderson, K. E. (2016). Getting acquainted with social networks and apps: WhatsApp-ening with Mobile
Instant Messaging?. Library Hi Tech News,33(6).
Alehegn, T., & Mentor, D. (2016). Mobile Learning for Social Change: Democratizing Education and
Civic Engagement. Handbook of Research on Mobile Learning in Contemporary Classrooms,
363-377.
Chadwick, A., & Stromer-Galley, J. (2016). Digital Media, Power, and Democracy in Parties and Election
Campaigns Party Decline or Party Renewal?. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 21(3),
283-293.
Chayko, M. (2012). Connecting: How we form social bonds and communities in the Internet age.

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Kenski, K., & Conway, B. A. (2016). Social Media and Elections. Praeger Handbook of Political
Campaigning in the United States [2 volumes], 191.
Okoli, C., & Pawlowski, S. D. (2004). The Delphi method as a research tool: an example, design
considerations and applications. Information & management, 42(1), 15-29.
Schroeder, R. (2010). Mobile phones and the inexorable advance of multimodal connectedness. New
Media & Society, 12(1), 75-90.
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and
health outcomes of minority students. Science,331(6023), 1447-1451.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Agnostic: Refers to mobile applications or tools that are not dependent on a particular type of
Operating System, but can run on various platforms, without requiring any special adaptations,
sometimes also referenced as cross-platform or cross compatible applications.

Co-presence: The practice of people engaging in real-time face-to-face social activities and
being engrossed in the here and now of that social activity, but also being virtually present and
via texting or mobile messaging with dual occupation of real and virtual space

Mobile crowdsourcing: Mobile crowdsourcing describes the collation of a large group of

people’s views and/or observations. These crowdsourcing activities are processed on mobile
phones or other handheld mobile devices.

Mobile learning: also known as mLearning refers to creating, leveraging or designing learning
opportunities via portable technologies from and/or for interpersonal and organizational mobile
communication

Mobile social media: Social communication and networking where affiliated individuals with
dis/similar interests converse and connect virtually and/or in-person with one another through
their mobile phone, handheld and/or tablet device.
Social Connectedness: Concept often been used to characterize degrees of interpersonal trust,
attachment security, social competency, and a sense of belonging, online and in real world.

Social Media Network Services: Social network services like Facebook, Weibo, Tumblr,
Instagram, YouTube and a host of other online and mobile accessible services or platforms that
is used to activate or maintain social relationships with people, businesses or organizations.

In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
In print: Mentor, D. (2017). Micro to Macro Social Connectedness through Mobile Phone Engagement. In M. Khosrow-Pour
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior (ch357). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.