Alberta Contarello and Leopoldina Fortunati
November 7th 2002, Montegrotto, Italy

Alberta started by noting a range of concerns about the relationship between ICTs and the human body, especially the process of the ‘artificialisation’ of the body:

• Concerns that we may live longer but experience a more inert life.
• Concerns about the phenomenon of mass prothesisation.
• Concerns that the increasing blend of organic and inorganic elements in our bodies may mean that we live longer but feel more 'dead'.

When looking for a theoretical framework and methodological strategies to explore these processes they had turned to the social representation theory associated with Moscovici. This looks at how an object becomes of object of social representation — when it is seen as a problem, contextualised, shared, polymorphous and charged with value. They looked at three elements of social representations: Information, Attitudes and the Representation field. To explore the information element, the researchers provided a pamphlet to students and asked them to write down the words they associated with each of the following: ‘the Internet’, ‘the mobile phone’, ‘the computer’, ‘fashion’, ‘journey’ and ‘myself'’.

The students were then provided with the stimulus question ‘In you opinion,…new ICTs …the human body… are’ and they had to fill in the gaps with whatever came to mind.

To explore the attitude element, the students’ responses to an SD scale regarding the Internet, Mobile and Computer were analysed.

To develop the Representation field element, the researchers conducted a structural analysis (correspondence analysis) to show underlying dimensions.

The study was conducted with 280 university students, 40% were male and they were from different faculties. In terms of their use and ownership of technologies — 98% had a mobile and 98% used SMS, 85% had a computer, 25% used in daily, 27% weekly, 19% monthly, 15% rarely and 14% never. 17% used the Internet daily, 30% weekly, 27% monthly, 18% rarely, and 9% never. 49% were engaged, 1% were married, 11% were dating, and 38% were single.

The Body Investment Scale, a scale already developed for other purposes consisted, of 20 items (questions), which were grouped into 4 subscales — e.g. items such as whether people get pleasure from touch when communicating. From the answers students gave to these questions:

On the ‘Body Image’ subscale the average (mean) was a score of 3.83 (on a 5 point scale).

For ‘Comfort with touch’ it was 3.22.

For ‘Body Care’ it was 4.09.

For ‘Body Protection’ 3.74.

From the exercise in which students wrote down their associations (the Information element of social representations), the following were the things that students associated with the three different ICTs:

• Internet: Internet-parts, computer, communication, information, omnipresence, science, usefulness, speed, fun, surf, up-to-dateness, world, knowledge, notes, pornography and technology.
• Mobile: Mobile-parts, communication, usefulness, friends, cost, convenience, telephone, annoyance, brands, reachableness, fashion, fundamental, technology, contact, conversation.
• Computer: Computer-parts, Internet-parts, fun, usefulness, work, technology, fundamental, science, speed, program, knowledge, difficulty and complexity.

The equivalent results for the other terms were:

• The Human Body: Machine, exceptional, complex, perfect, beautiful, delicate, fundamental, unique, life, body-parts, physical, charming, identity, adaptable, functional, mysterious, looked-after, interest.
• Myself: Nice, shy.
• Fashion: Cost, clothes, shows, models, uselessness, conformity, colour, elegance, and appearance.
• Journey: Fun, time off, holiday, sea, freedom, culture, sun, knowledge, friends, airplane, warmth, rest, discovery, relax.

Turning now to the next exercise, the attitude scales, a factor analysis of the results led to the following 6 factors, or clusters of attitudes, being identified:

• 1° factor: Appreciation and General evaluation (a combination of agreeable, amusing, pleasant and desirable).
  • Internet=5.11, Mobile=5.03m Computer=5.09m (on a 7 point scale).
• 2° factor: Specific evaluation (a combination of fosters information and knowledge without causing harm).
  • Internet=4.25, Mobile=3.02, Computer=4.41*
• 3° factor: Utility and Speed
  • Internet=5.5 Mobile=6.04 Computer=5.77*
• 4° factor: Cheap - Internet=3.26 Mobile=2.31 Computer=2.29°
• 5° factor: Global, artificial and crazy (i.e. not wise)
  • Internet=6.16 Mobile=5.42 Computer=5.68*

When moving on to consider the organising principles behind the associations provided by the students in the first exercise, an Aplum analysis was used.

This lead to a number of sets of contrasting blocks of attitudes. The following headings (in italics) are words or phrases which attempt to summarise the clusters of attitudes:

• 'Fun&Freedom' vs. 'Aesthetics & Constraint'.
• 'Nature' vs. 'Technology'.
• 'Communication tools in everyday life' (in which associations are factual and descriptive) vs. 'The wonderful machine' (in which the human body is associated with positive evaluation).
• 'The positive world of information' (associated with the Internet and the Computer) vs. 'An ambivalent device for communication' (where the mobile phone has some negative associations).
• 'The material machine' (the Human body) vs. 'Personal and social identity' (Myself).
• 'Openess to the worldÕ (associated with the Internet) vs. 'Permanence' (the Computer).

In the next stage of the analysis, the researchers used an Asparm analysis to try to identify associations were provided by different groups within the sample of participating students.

For example, regarding the human body:

• A cluster 'The Human Body: The Home of the Self' was a block of associations mostly expressed by pharmacy students, students with a low body image, and students who did not use the mobile and SMS.
• The cluster 'Means of contact' was most expressed by females, students who rarely used the PC and Internet, ones who made daily use of email, ones who made no use of e-mail and students with a low body image.
• The cluster 'Perfect machine' was most expressed by males people who used the PC and Internet, students who made weekly use of e-mail, students who did not use the mobile and students who had a good image of the body.

There were further such analysis focusing on clusters of attitudes relating to the mobile phone and to the Internet.

In conclusion:

• As regards the informational aspect, the Internet, mobile phone and computer are mostly preceived as being useful, described in their parts and less often mentioned in metaphorical terms. At a closer reading, however, several interesting aspects arise. In contrast, the human body appears to be seen as perfect, wonderful, unique, a splendid 'machine', delicate but self-regulated. - Attitudes towards the Internet, the mobile phone and the Computer show a similar general evaluation but with differences in more specific aspects.
  
• Finally, a structural analyses reveals.

1. There is a strong distinction between Description and Evaluation. At a closer scrutiny, various other organising principles emerge.
2. Meanwhile Freedom vs. Constraint and Nature vs. Technology appear to be the underlying dimensions which organise knowledge regarding ICTs and the Human Body.
3. The mobile phone, the Internet and the computer assume different positions mainly along the polarities Communication vs. Information and Mobility vs. Stability.
4. The Human Body evokes associations pertaining to the polarity Relating vs. Being.
5. The Mobile and the Internet elicit various associations, the first highly ambivalent, the second more positive (but not without shadows).
6. Along the poles of the different dimensions described above, different groups of students (defined by gender, context, practices, concerns with body) take different positions.

The proposed theoretical framework and methods appear suitable to go beyond looking at uses to images of and evaluations related to ICTs. If supported by further research, the results at this psychological level suggest there is less of 'divide' regarding access to Internet (and even more so as regards the mobile).

The patterns of 'social thought' investigated here, rich and variegated as they are, do not seem to share the same preoccupation that exists within sociological and communication thinking about the 'invasion' of the body by ICTs. Rather, there are some concerns and worries by specific groups, often characterised by an average use of technologies. ICTs evoke some association as, human bodies evoke others Ñ but they are really different worlds within students not associating ICTs and the body

While this ‘social thought’ has been elaborated only a little so far, the present results seem to support the view of a ‘living’ ‘social representation’, with lively debates and hot positions being taken by people in everyday life.

Leopoldina added that this whole method might be useful in helping us to understand the domestication of ICTs on a psychological level (as opposed to in terms of practices). They proposed to carry this research out in different countries, and present it as a COST269 cross-cultural piece of research in Helsinki.