Culture of using Cellular Phones among Teens at Mukomuko County, Bengkulu Province (The Case Students of SMU Negeri I Mukomuko)

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the trend of owning cellular phones among teens as a mass culture. While tehe specific ones were (1) to investigate the attitude and behavioral patterns of those teens possessing cellular phones at Mukomuko; (2) to identity individual and family influences on the attitudes and behavior patterns in using cellular phones among teens at Mukomuko; (3) to determine the influencing sources of information accessed by teens at Mukomuko in deciding to use cellular phones and their relation to mass culture. The qualitative approach was used in the analysis of the case study. The data were collected through observations, questionaires responded by 109 students, in-depth interviews with eight students as resource persons, focusgroup discussion with four groups of phone users, and documentation study. The data were analyzed descriptively. The result of this study shows that the use of cellular phones has been a mass culture: (1) Teens at Mukomuko use cellular phones as a lifestyle, rather than as a communication tool; (2) Individual and family factors greatly influence those teens in using cellular phones; (3) mass media is considered to be the most influencing source of information in the use of cellular phones among teens at Mukomuko.