Can mobile devices replace human interaction?
| by Kent Stones
I have a confession to make: I love technology. Particularly mobile technology. I have the latest smartphone, an iPad and a laptop and I use them all frequently. Too much, truth be told. They make my life so much better. I love finding ways they can make me more efficient and knowledgeable. But I am having a real problem with them in one area of my life - when I'm in the field spending time with shoppers.
See, what I do
for a living involves figuring out what it means to be human. I try to
understand what's behind the things that motivate, inspire, disgust or anger us
toward some action. I end up using a lot of tools in my work. Some are tried
and true old friends upon which I can rely for a certain level of insight. Others
are new and different, residing in this digital age of social networks and
online communities and providing information at a speed and breadth not
possible just ten years ago. And all of them are valuable when used in the
right context.
But mobile devices in research are bothering me, as I'm seeing an alarmingly high number of marketers eschewing research that requires being there in person. Shopping alongside someone is being replaced by putting a smartphone in their hands and having them document their journey. Spending time with someone in their home is being replaced with "virtual ethnography." These decisions are being made on the basis of cost and time, not on whether or not the insights generated will be powerful enough to help the brand achieve its business objectives.
Most of my most successful insights have come from observations or experiences that were not in the field guide questions or even directly related to the task at hand. They came from the way the participant interacted with something or someone else in the shopping environment, or an offhand comment made during a drive somewhere, or from someone else's expression or reaction to something the participant said. My point is, they were things I hadn't thought to ask or the participant wouldn't have thought to tell me. And they would have been missed without being there.
I hope that we never forgo spending time with people simply because it costs more and takes more time - which it does. As much as I love my mobile devices, they will never replace the power of being there and having that "a-ha" moment when something unexpected reveals itself. Where these devices rock, funnily enough, is in sharing that "a-ha" revelation. Communicating that moment is just a tweet, Facebook post or blog entry away.
Am I being a research Luddite, or do you agree with me? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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Comments
Remote data collection will only result in half-baked self-reporting by respondents who (knowingly or not) have censored what they do. A professional ethnographer does in-context research to discover what is really going on: good data collection, face-to-face with respondents, leads to good results. Period.