Applying Third Place Theory in Mobile Social Media Research: The Physical-Virtual Integration

A mobile social media (MSM) allows an individual to be accessed to virtual space and engaged with other people when consuming a traditional physical third place. Little is known about how to adapt the third place theory to the Web 2.0 era and what opportunities it may bring for IS research. This study reviews third place theory and MSM literature, develops an extended research framework for third place, and proposes its implications for MSM research. The paper suggests that third place should include physical, virtual, and physical-virtual integrated places that have largely changed individuals’ behaviour in public domain. Moreover, extending the third place theory to include virtual spaces has several implications for MSM research: 1) incorporating aesthetics to advance the design of MSM; 2) taking on a symbolic action perspective to understand individuals’ continuing use of MSM; and 3) utilizing social dynamics to increase the impact of MSM on individuals’ social capital accumulation.

[1]  Andrew Burton-Jones,et al.  From Use to Effective Use: A Representation Theory Perspective , 2013, Inf. Syst. Res..

[2]  Manuel Arriaga,et al.  Distinction and Status Production on User-Generated Content Platforms: Using Bourdieu's Theory of Cultural Production to Understand Social Dynamics in Online Fields , 2014, Inf. Syst. Res..

[3]  Kevin Jiang.  Introduction , 2013, Nature Medicine.

[4]  Anol Bhattacherjee,et al.  Understanding Information Systems Continuance: An Expectation-Confirmation Model , 2001, MIS Q..

[5]  N. Tractinsky,et al.  What is beautiful is usable , 2000, Interact. Comput..

[6]  Constance Steinkuehler,et al.  Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" , 2006, DiGRA Conference.

[7]  Craig J Thompson,et al.  The Starbucks Brandscape and Consumers' (Anticorporate) Experiences of Glocalization , 2004 .

[8]  Martin Bichler,et al.  Design science in information systems research , 2006, Wirtschaftsinf..

[9]  Ulrike Schultze,et al.  Performing embodied identity in virtual worlds , 2014, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[10]  M. Morris,et al.  Values, schemas, and norms in the culture–behavior nexus: A situated dynamics framework , 2015 .

[11]  Amy L. Ostrom,et al.  A Cup of Coffee With a Dash of Love , 2007 .

[12]  P. Cormack,et al.  `True Stories' of Canada , 2008 .

[13]  Güliz Ger,et al.  Early Modern Ottoman Coffeehouse Culture and the Formation of the Consumer Subject , 2011 .

[14]  Lee Humphreys,et al.  Mobile Social Networks and Social Practice: A Case Study of Dodgeball , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[15]  B. Joseph Pine,et al.  The Experience Economy , 2020, Journal of Orthopaedic Experience & Innovation.

[16]  Scott A. Lukas.  The themed space : locating culture, nation, and self , 2007 .

[17]  C KaneGerald,et al.  What's different about social media networks? a framework and research agenda , 2014 .

[18]  P. Bourdieu,et al.  The Field of Cultural Production , 1993 .

[19]  G. Simmel.  The Sociology of Sociability , 1949, American Journal of Sociology.

[20]  Judith Donath,et al.  Signals in Social Supernets , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[21]  Cliff Lampe,et al.  The Benefits of Facebook "Friends: " Social Capital and College Students' Use of Online Social Network Sites , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[22]  Michela Mari,et al.  Servicescape cues and customer behavior: a systematic literature review and research agenda , 2013 .

[23]  Leysia Palen,et al.  Of Coffee Shops and Parking Lots: Considering Matters of Space and Place in the Use of Public Wi-Fi , 2008, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[24]  A. Kaplan,et al.  Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media , 2010 .

[25]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Symbolic Action Research in Information Systems: Introduction to the Special Issue , 2014, MIS Q..

[26]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[27]  Sharon S. Kleinman.  Cafe Culture in France and the United States: A Comparative Ethnographic Study of the Use of Mobile Information and Communication Technologies , 2006 .

[28]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Servicescapes: The Impact of Physical Surroundings on Customers and Employees: , 1992 .

[29]  David W. McDonald,et al.  Design and Usability of Interactive User Profiles for Online Health Communities , 2016, ACM Trans. Comput. Hum. Interact..

[30]  P. Berger,et al.  Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective , 1963 .

[31]  Keith N. Hampton,et al.  The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces: Internet Use, Social Networks, and the Public Realm , 2010, Public Space Reader.

[32]  Russell Williams,et al.  From servicescape to “cyberscape” , 2004 .

[33]  Gerald C. Kane,et al.  What's Different about Social Media Networks? A Framework and Research Agenda , 2014, MIS Q..

[34]  Mark Aakhus,et al.  From Information‐Seeking Behavior to Meaning Engagement Practice. , 2002 .

[35]  Laura Forlano,et al.  WiFi Geographies: When Code Meets Place , 2009, Inf. Soc..

[36]  Helena Grinshpun,et al.  Deconstructing a global commodity: Coffee, culture, and consumption in Japan , 2014 .

[37]  Lakshmi Goel,et al.  From space to place: predicting users' intentions to return to virtual worlds , 2011 .

[38]  Ana Ortiz de Guinea,et al.  Why break the habit of a lifetime? rethinking the roles of intention, habit, and emotion in continuing information technology use , 2009 .