英文摘要 |
This study explored how instant messaging (IM) is used in the social context in Taiwan. By using archival analysis and ethnographic interviews with Taiwanese university graduates and students in their final year, the author investigated how the strategies of communication through IM are closely related to the shifting of life stages. In this paper, the author addresses how the characteristics of software may influence the users' strategies, how IM has been integrated with other technologies for various purposes, how the methods of use reflect changes in users' lifestyles, and how the collective domestication of IM contributes to the formation of a new morality of communication. This paper provides a theoretical contribution to domestication theory by expanding the scope of empirical study from material objects, such as television and mobile phones, to nonmaterial objects, such as online communication. |