Mobile Me & You Project (Streaming Apps) Part I |Mobile Reputations course | AD & PR Lab
More and more trends overwhelm our contemporary world. In the purposes of our course ‘’Mobile Reputations’’, we, as students of AD&PR Lab of Panteion University , run a survey in order to investigate the usage that the Millennials do in their self phones. Specifically we choose to focus on streaming platforms by interviewing 10 persons in order to meet the needs of our project. In this section we will focus on two Millennials, Alex and Faye.
Alex, who is 29 years old, holds a degree in business administration. He is currently working as a journalist on one of the private TV channels. As far as his mobile phone is concerned, it is an integral part of his life. Without fail,upon waking up each morning, he checks his Instagram and different sites to check the TV ratings so as to see how the TV channel he works for is doing. Then he checks his messages on Facebook, Viber and Gmail.
During the day, time permitting, he will play games on his phone and communicate with friends. He also uses streaming apps especially YouTube and Netflix. Alex depends on his phone so much he claims “I am naked without my phone”. He doesn’t use any apps to schedule his day, except for his alarm.Facebook, Gmail in Viber are used mainly for his occupation as well as keeping in touch with friends. He uses Facebook at work to find profiles of people whom he feels would be beneficial to have on the TV channel he works for. He also uses Gmail for business traveling tickets and material needed for the TV show, and Viber to communicate between his colleagues and superiors.
Alex favors his mobile phone over his PC and tablet as he uses it more. When he’s at work He uses his PC. He enjoys sharing photos on Instagram from the places he visits, personal moments and he posts his thoughts on Facebook. Although he likes to socialize with his friends, his mobile is always by his side for work purposes, as he says you never know when a story will break out. He also uses it to illustrate stories he tells his friends and to share photos and messages. Because he’s dedicated to his job he’s always on call. It’s not easy to see his friends whenever he wants, so it’s easier to interact with them on social media. He’s not big on influencers as he thinks they are completely useless and their purpose is totally commercial.
As far as online shopping is concerned, he’s totally against it. In his words, “I might buy espresso capsules but I will get someone else to place the order”. Despite this, he does pay his utilities online. If you exclude work you usage, he has almost the same mobile use habits as his friends. He uses streaming apps, Netflix and YouTube, for entertainment and information. He’s an avid series and movie buff and Netflix provides him with more than a variety of things to watch. On average, Alex spends about 8 hours on his phone
Our second millennial is Faye. She is 29 years old and has a degree in Pastoral and Social Theology. She is currently working as a nanny and studying photography. Let’s find out how she uses her mobile phone.
First of all, “I can’t go anywhere without my phone and I always have a power bank with me!” she says. She wakes up to the alarm on her mobile as it continues to ring for 15 minutes. Once awake, she checks the weather app and Moovit app to see if there are any changes to public transport routes and if she is running late for work she calls BEAT to get a taxi.
During the day she uses Viber and Messenger to communicate with family and friends and after work she uses YouTube and Netflix for entertainment.Faye’s phone is her day by day organizer. She organizes the program of the child she is taking care of on her nanny app. At the end of the month, she and the child’s parents keep track of the child’s progress and make necessary changes to its routine.
She does not believe in complementary gadgets and because she’s into photography she uses her laptop only for photo editing or to watch a film. Everything else is done and her mobile phone, where she shares on different platforms art pieces that she creates and photos that she takes on her professional camera.
Unlike Alex, Faye doesn’t use her phone when she is with friends. She keeps the volume on mute and enjoys talking with family and friends. She also finds talking randomly and chat room satisfying. Concerning influencers, Faye follows #Tess holiday and # effyourbeautystandards on Instagram and Facebook.
Because of her limited time, she makes most of her purchases online. She buys clothing, books and collectables on platforms such as public.gr, forever21, nerdom, angrynerd, boohoo, and yoursclothing. She also does online banking fpr bills and rent. She also enjoys streaming platforms mainly on her days off to relax. She watches movies and tv series on pop corn, hulu and the most used being Netflix.
Like Alex, Faye uses her phone for information, communication and entertainment. However, for her the first two have priority. On average, she spends 3 hours daily on her phone and about 6–7 hours on weekends.
We would like to thank Alex and Faye for giving us an account of how they use their mobile phones. As we can see, there are parallels and differences. Stay tuned for part two where two more Millennials give us their feedback concerning their use of their mobile phone.
Team: Alexia Stavropoulou
Professor: Betty Tsakarestou
If you want to learn how this project got started and the methodology that we follow you can have a look at the following articles:
