Smartphone Information Behaviour

"After over a decade of smartphone use, the technology has enhanced access to information everywhere and at all times. Information searching has been part of peoples’ lives for a long time. People search for information for various reasons, sometimes to enable them to do their work or to answer questions in their everyday life. In the past, online information searching could only be done on computers in specific locations. Presently, searching can be done on smartphones from anywhere, and at any time. This research, therefore, set out to determine how often smartphones are used in information search for everyday life and academic purposes relative to the computer? Is information found on smartphones evaluated? If so, how is information evaluated? If not, then why not? Why does someone choose one device (smartphone or computer) over the other?The study adopted a mixed methods approach in answering the research questions. Participants for all parts of the study were undergraduate students aged 18-24. The survey was emailed to all undergraduate students at McGill University, yielding 3565 responses. Survey questions asked participants how often they use smartphones and computers to search for information for everyday health, news, leisure, and academic purposes. Interview data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 27 participants. Questions focused on the reasons for searching for information on their smartphones, the type of information they searched for, how the information was evaluated and why they selected one device over the other to search for information. The study findings show that undergraduate students use their smartphones for all four topics (health, leisure, news, and academic information search). However, usage varies across topics. Students use the smartphone more frequently than computers for leisure, news and to some extent health. For academic information search, students use computers more frequently. Information found on smartphones was usually not evaluated for credibility. Evaluation of information differed across topics with some similarities among the categories of health and academic information purposes. Leisure information was mostly not evaluated. In cases where it was evaluated, it was done mainly through recommendations and reviews. In relation to news, most users said they were not concerned about the credibility of the source. Rather, they were concerned about fake news or real and inherent biases that a source might be known for, since most media houses were politically aligned when it comes to topics of interest. Academic related information found on smartphones were mostly not evaluated. Results from the study suggested that the purpose or context (e.g., health, leisure, news, or academic) of information need might influence the choice of device used. This study has shown that smartphones play an important role in people’s information search behaviour and has provided insights into smartphone use for information searches. It has identified issues related to the evaluation of information found on smartphones and the link between the device used and information behaviour. Theoretically, the present study contributes to the existing literature on information behaviour by shedding new light on smartphone information behaviour. This study showed that some of the activities depicted in Wilson’s (1997) revised general model can be found in smartphone information behaviour, thereby suggesting that Wilson’s model remains relevant in the smartphone era. The revised general model is detailed and includes all aspects of the information user’s processes, from identifying their information need to seeking the information and consequently processing it for use. However, the present study also identified the role of an additional intervening variable – device affordances— to recognize the influence of the device, and its characteristics, in information behaviour"--