Interpreting technology-mediated identity: perception of social intention and meaning in Bluetooth names

The ubiquitous and highly personal nature of mobile devices, together with the partially embodied nature of Bluetooth, means that mobile device based Bluetooth provides unique affordances for communicating aspects of identity. We report a study of how people interpret Bluetooth names in terms of social identity, considering it as an example of mobile technology-mediated identity. We used card-sorting, hierarchical cluster analysis, multi-dimensional scaling and qualitative analysis to establish perceived types of Bluetooth name and dimensions of naming; illustrating how people conceptualise and interpret technology-mediated identity projected by others.

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