From Adoption to Use: the process of appropriating a mobile phone

Abstract

Users appropriate a technology through a process of evaluation that results either in rejection or adoption, adaptation and integration of the technology into their everyday activities. Currently this process, and the influences on users’ decisions within that process, is poorly understood. This paper reports a research project that examines young people’s appropriation of mobile technologies. Thirty young Australians were supplied with a free WAP phone for a month and were tracked from their expectations, the initial encounter and the first month of use of a WAP phone. We found that the influences on their adoption of the phones were quite different to those on ongoing use and so the influences on adoption do not predict long-term use. It is clear that studying adoption is only one step towards understanding technology acceptance and use and that rejection of a technology, even one that is supplied free of cost, is an ever-present option.