Explaining African-American Cell Phone Usage Through the Social Shaping of Technology Approach

Abstract

African-Americans have been understood to be on the wrong side of the “digital divide”. Yet, African-Americans exhibit high rates of cell phone usage. This study attempts to explain this trend by applying a social shaping of technology approach. High rates by African-Americans are hypothesized to be powered by the cultural expectations of communicating with family and friends. Using nationally representative data, several conclusions were drawn. First, African-Americans have higher rates of cell phone usage for calling and texting, but not Internet usage. This holds after controlling for various factors associated with cell phone usage. Second, there is evidence that the high rate of usage by Hispanics is also grounded in cultural expectations. Finally, race and family structure interact to produce high rates of phone calling, but do not interact to produce high rates of texting.