Chapter 4.5, Problem 54E

The paper “Portable Social Groups: Willingness to Communicate, Interpersonal Communication Gratifications, and Cell Phone Use among Young Adults” (International Journal of Mobile Communications [2007]: 139–156) describes a study of young adult cell phone use patterns.

1. a. Comment on the following quote from the paper. Do you agree with the authors?

   Seven sections of an Introduction to Mass Communication course at a large southern university were surveyed in the spring and fall of 2003. The sample was chosen because it offered an excellent representation of the population under study—young adults.

2. b. Below is another quote from the paper. In this quote, the author reports the mean number of minutes of cell phone use per week for those who participated in the survey. What additional information would have been provided about cell phone use behavior if the author had also reported the standard deviation?

   Based on respondent estimates, users spent an average of 629 minutes (about 10.5 hours) per week using their cell phone on or off line for any reason.