The Telephone in Question: Questions on Communication

Abstract The household use of the telephone is not well known. Who telephones? Why? To whom? Over and above the diversity of telephone conversations, is it possible to identify different telephone habits? Using a survey of telephone calls (7252 communications) made by 663 individuals, three main conclusions are reached. Firstly, before being a means of communication, the telephone is foremost a management tool for daily life. Secondly if the telephone sometimes enables us to control space and time better, it generally enables us to manage new space/time constraints. Thirdly, the household use of the telephone is highly differentiated: the different telephone habits result from factors such as the sex of the members of the household, their age, its size, the professional activities, etc.