Impact of Mobile Usage on the Interpersonal Relations

Communication via mobile telephones is widespread in East Asian metropolis such as Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo. In the last ten years, the number of mobile telephone users has increased dramatically, with the younger generation in particular depending on the services available via mobile telephones. This paper explores the relationship between the voice and text messaging communications of these young consumers through their mobile telephones and their interpersonal relations. It analyses how mobile telephone usage affects relationships between respondents by comparing models of the cause-effect relationship of several latent factors in different environments, namely dependency on mobile telephone communication, perception of friendships, individual factors and IT literacy. By applying a covariance structure analysis, the correlations between latent and observable variables can be successfully visualized. The results show that mobile telephones have little influence on the perception of relationships among the younger generation, although somewhat different structures of interdependency exist in these metropolitan areas.