Liquid Communication: An Analysis of the Impact of Mobile Micro-blogging on Communication and Decision-Making

One of the most common forms of using mobile and social media technologies is the use of micro-blogging such as Twitter on mobile devices. The ubiquity of mobile devices combined with the communication via social network service like Twitter can potentially host a number of significant changes in the way people communicate and make decisions in a group setting. Yet, there is no theoretical framework that can effectively predict or interpret the changes. Based on the Bauman’s ‘liquid modernity,’ we develop a new concept, ‘communication liquidity’ which illustrates the extent to which communication is dynamic. The communication liquidity consists of the three dimensions – temporal, spatial, and conversational. We posit that micro-blogging on a mobile device brings higher levels of the communication liquidity in these three dimensions, which in turn improve the outcomes of communication among the group

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