The use and integration of new technologies into everyday life

Wireless in-ear headphones have emerged as a new technology in recent years. How are they being integrated into everyday life and changing the way we live together?

A study project by Josephine Franz and Meike Fenz
1st semester, 2020
Supervising lecturers: Prof. Dr Peter Schuhmacher, Prof. Dr Thomas Pleil

Background

Over the past few decades, new technologies have repeatedly found their way into our everyday lives, changing and often simplifying our lives at the same time. In the recent past, for example, wireless in-ear headphones (WIEH) have been introduced, enabling us to receive audio via Bluetooth technology without the need for a wire. We can see – on the way to meetings, on a bus and even at work – that people use WIEH everywhere and most of the time. People listen to music or podcasts, take phone calls or reply to voice messages. Thanks to these innovations, the wireless headphone market has allowed us to use headphones in an even more effective and unobtrusive way.
Our aim was to find out how people integrate WIEH into their everyday lives. We wanted to determine whether different types of users can be identified and where similarities and differences in usage exist. We also wanted to investigate how new technology is accepted and whether it changes our behaviour, using WIEH as an example.

The idea

To address our research question, we first conducted a literature review on technology adoption and technology use, and examined current models of technological acceptance. In addition, we familiarised ourselves with a specific research method: ethnomethodology within qualitative social research. Ethnomethodology examines everyday scenarios and the actions that take place within them. It explores the ‘how’ of actions or uses to understand the meaning behind them. Through this, we aimed to gain as close an insight as possible into how WIEH users utilise the technology.
Once we had been introduced to the research method, the project proceeded through an iterative process. At the start of our research, we were unable to define a rigid plan with fixed steps to work through. We had to decide on how to proceed and the various survey methods to employ based on the interim results.
To gain an initial overview of the WIEH user community, we sat in public places and recorded observation logs. This gave us an impression of how people use WIEH and interact with others.

However, the observer’s perspective in the field research did not provide sufficient insight into the use of WIEH, so we decided to ask four test people to keep diary entries about their use over the course of one week. The participants answered six key questions in a table for each of the listed uses. They were asked about the type and duration of use, the intention behind it, whether other people were involved, the location of use and their feelings whilst using the app. This enabled us to gain a better understanding of how the app was used. In addition to the diary entries, we interviewed the test subjects before and after the week of the survey. In these interviews, we asked for general information about the people, their assessment of their use and how they felt about it after the week of the survey. We also asked them for their views on the survey method using diary entries, as this research method was new to us too and we wanted to reflect on this research process with the help of the respondents. The data collected ultimately provided us with sufficient information to answer or evaluate our research questions.

The findings

The data revealed that the use of WIEH in a professional context differs from that in a private one. All test subjects see the greatest advantage of using WIEH as being the fact that they can carry out other activities, have their hands free and are thus able to ‘multitask’. All test people use the WIEH for entertainment and to consume audio or video content. They avoid disturbing people around them (e.g. work colleagues, flatmates or neighbours), whilst also ensuring they are not disturbed themselves. The headphones signal to people that the WIEH user is currently listening or engaged in any other activity associated with the WIEH. In some cases, the test subjects have adapted their concurrent activities to the duration of the content they are consuming (e.g. the length of a podcast).
All in all, the research project provided an interesting insight into the use of WIEH and an impression of how people with different living circumstances integrate new technology into their everyday lives. For us researchers, the research method was particularly novel, and we were able to familiarise ourselves with various research and survey methods.