The perception that as people become increasingly attached to their phones they become less social is just wrong, according to one expert.
In fact, people turn to their smartphones and other electronic tools to be social, to get information, and to be entertained, says Gabriella Harari, an assistant professor of communication at Stanford University.
Harari’s research shows that who people are and what they like to do shapes behaviors online, not just the technologies themselves.
Harari’s research examines two broad questions: What do digital media reveal about personality and how might digital media change personality? To study these questions, Harari and her research group examine the ways digital media can provide insight into people’s lives and promote behavioral change.
Here, Harari explains some of her work:
Futurity: What do people most misunderstand about digital media’s effects on behavior?
I think that a general misconception that many may hold is that the advent of digital media technologies has made us less social, in the sense that we are talking to each other less face-to-face. But people’s personalities influence their digital media use, the technologies themselves are just a medium through which they engage in various behaviors.
For example, it is obvious that smartphones have changed our behavior in the sense that people today seem to be more often looking at their devices, as opposed to, attending to their environment and the people in it.
But if we consider what people are actually doing on their smartphones—communicating with others, seeking in ..
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