Mobility, Communication, and Place: Navigating the Landscapes of Suburban U.S. Teens

Abstract

In the context of sprawl and car dependence in U.S. metropolitan areas, young people—especially teens in middle-class suburbs—create new mobility practices with near-universal adoption of cellphones and high levels of access to automobiles. The growth in the use of handheld mobile devices for communication and information might enhance independent mobility and accessibility for higher socioeconomic segments of the youth population. In a project with teens in two high schools near Burlington, Vermont, representing somewhat different land-use contexts, we examined how often and in what ways teens use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to arrange transportation, what travel needs are being met and which transportation modes are used, and how household situations contextualize the use of ICTs for mobility. We explore the ways in which access to cellphones and cars affects how high school teens organize and enact their daily lives in suburban and rural contexts. We employ a conceptual framework that connects mobility, communication, and place based on the notion that contemporary teens generate new intersections among the built, digital, and social landscapes.

在美国大都会地区的蔓延和车辆依赖之脉络中, 年轻人——特别是中产阶级郊区中的青少年——随着近乎全球普及的手机使用和高度的汽车可及性, 创造出崭新的能动性实践。将手持行动装置用于通信与信息的的成长, 或许会增进来自于较高社经地位的青年人口的独立能动性与可及性。我们在佛蒙特邻近伯灵顿的两所呈现出些许不同土地使用脉络的高中, 与年轻人进行的一项计画中, 检视青少年使用信息与通信技术 (ICTs) 来安排运输的频率与方式, 他们什麽样的移动需求受到满足, 使用何种运输模式, 以及家户境况如何概念化将 ICTs 运用至能动性的使用。我们探讨使用手机和车辆的方式, 如何影响郊区与乡村脉络中, 高中青少年安排并执行其日常生活的方式。我们根据当前青少年在建成、数码与社会地景中形成新交汇之见解, 运用连结能动性、通信与地方的概念架构。

En el contexto de la descontrolada expansión urbana y dependencia en el carro en las áreas metropolitanas de los EE.UU., la gente joven—especialmente los adolescentes de los suburbios de clase media—crean nuevas prácticas de movilidad con la adopción casi universal de los teléfonos celulares y los altos niveles de acceso a los automóviles. El aumento del uso de aparatos móviles de mano para las comunicaciones y la información podría fortalecer la movilidad y accesibilidad independiente para los segmentos socioeconómicos más altos de la población joven. En un proyecto con adolescentes de dos escuelas de secundaria, cerca de Burlington, Vermont, que representan contextos de usos de la tierra algo diferentes, examinamos qué tan a menudo y cómo usan los jóvenes las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TICs) para acordar transporte, qué necesidades de transporte se están abocando y cuáles medios de transporte se usan, y de qué modos las situaciones del hogar contextualizan el uso de las TICs para movilidad. Exploramos las maneras como el acceso a los teléfonos celulares y a los carros afecta el modo como los jóvenes de la escuela secundaria organizan y viven sus vidas cotidianas, en contextos suburbanos y rurales. Empleamos un marco conceptual que conecta movilidad, comunicación y lugar a partir de la noción de que los adolescentes contemporáneos generan nuevas intersecciones entre los paisajes construidos, digitales y sociales.

Key Words:

• cellphones
• information and communication technologies (ICTs)
• suburbs
• teens
• transportation

关键词：:

• 手机
• 信息与通信技术 (ICTs)
• 郊区
• 青少年
• 运输。

Palabras clave:

• teléfonos celulares
• tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TICs)
• suburbios
• adolescentes
• transporte

Funding

This research was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the UTC Program at the New England University Transportation Center (at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the University of Vermont Transportation Research Center.

Notes

1. The phones remained in the hands of the students at all times and each teen was asked to reveal only information he or she was comfortable sharing. Leaving the phone in the teens' hands allowed them to curate their own summary of messaging and was important for respecting the teens' privacy.

2. This use of the term is distinguished from the practice of introducing hypothetical stories (“vignettes”) to research subjects for the purposes of data collection, which is common in psychology and health sciences.

3. Due to space considerations we did not include all five students' vignettes. We feel that the three chosen represent sufficient richness and variety to illustrate our points. Jacob's twin brother had virtually the same daily patterns and friend groups, so we only chose to include one of the boys. The other female participant (School B) was fascinating and vocal in her resistance to using a car or a cellphone (although she owned both) but admitted that she was very much in a minority at her school. Although her perspectives were useful in putting her peers' views in more stark relief, her self-proclaimed “outlier” status made it difficult to incorporate her story succinctly and within the page limit. We hope to revisit her position in a future paper.

4. Pseudonyms are used throughout.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meghan Cope

MEGHAN COPE is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include critical urban geography, young people's geographies, qualitative methods, and historical experiences of American childhood.

Brian H. Y. Lee

BRIAN H. Y. LEE is an Assistant Professor in Transportation Systems at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05404. E-mail: [email protected]. He is an applied researcher with expertise in transportation and land-use analysis. He has keen interests in the travel of marginalized populations and a record of interdisciplinary collaborations on policy-relevant projects.