Title: Attitudes towards mobile phone usage in public places among young Saudi adults

Authors: Robert A. Opoku

Addresses: Donald School of Business, Red Deer College, 4909 49th Street, Red Deer AB T4N 5H5, Canada

Abstract: This study investigates young Saudis' attitudes towards social acceptance of mobile phones in public places and how these attitudes affect their usage. A survey was conducted among young Saudi adult mobile phone users and the sample consisted of 727 respondents. A structural equation model was developed to test the hypotheses in this study. Collectively, the results indicate that it is neither acceptable for someone to accept a mobile call while praying in mosque or in class nor answer a mobile phone if it were to ring at both places. However, attitudes towards mobile phone use in other public places depend on intra-cultural variations within Saudi Arabia. Further, these attitudes significantly affect the usage frequency of mobile phones. Usage frequency in turn is affected by gender and work status. Practical implications are also discussed.

Keywords: public attitudes; cell phones; mobile phones; demographics; GCC; Gulf Cooperation Council; gender differences; work status; intra-cultural variations; Middle East; mobile communications; usage frequency; mosques; public places; Saudi Arabia; young adults; social acceptance; structural equation modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2017.083458

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2017 Vol.15 No.3, pp.235 - 251

Received: 22 Aug 2015
Accepted: 30 May 2016
Published online: 31 Mar 2017 *

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