Growing up in both Japan and the United States, Mizuko Ito’s bicultural background makes anthropology a natural fit. Also widely known as Mimi Ito, Ms. Ito has degrees in education and in anthropology, and did graduate work at StanfordUniversity during the tech boom in Silicon Valley. She ended up combining all those interests—technology, children, and other cultures—into her work as a cultural anthropologist researching new media.
Ms. Ito, 36, travels back and forth between the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and KeioUniversity in Tokyo to do research. At Keio, Ms. Ito works in the DoCoMo House research center, which is partially funded by NTT DoCoMo, to study mobile-phone use. She is also working with Intel to conduct a “mobile kit” study in Tokyo—documenting what people carry with them and how they use those objects—to help determine what new functions could be added to mobile phones.
Ms. Ito says older generations have a lot to learn from how the rising generation is taking up these new technologies—sometimes adults don’t recognize that young people are developing innovative uses for technologies. “I see my work as an anthropologist as identifying and describing what these natives of the digital world are doing, in ways which are informative to people who may not have grown up in that environment, as well as to people trying to develop those kinds of technologies,” she says.
Q: How are new communication tools changing communication?
A: For most people, text messaging has become a mechanism to keep in closer touch with a smaller number of people. Most young people are in touch with three to seven people in kind of an always-on state. Some do use it to extend their social networks in radically new ways, but it’s a minority of kids doing that.
Another thing that is happening is more and more communication is utilizing visual and multimedia forms. With camera phones, for example, you have a ubiquitous photo capture and sharing device, and you carry your photo book with you. You can take pictures of everyday life and share them with people.
Q: What is an emerging cell phone technology that you think will succeed?
A: It seems like micro cash is sort of a natural. It seems to be working well with transit systems in place in Japan now. In the U.S., it’s been in the parking meters.
Q: What upcoming technologies are uncertain?
A: I think the question is portable media devices, and to what degree people want them integrated. The camera’s been integrated, and video is on its way, but slower. But the big issue is content delivery beyond ring tones and wallpaper, like television, short films, novels, and music. It’s the ‘Will it replace the iPod?’ question. I’m not sure yet. We’re not even at the point where we can easily download television or video, and people are not used to television and video outside of homes, for the most part.
Q: What about games?
A: At least for now, I see the content side mainly supported by devices like Game Boys, trading card games, and other kinds of portable media kids carry around with them. That may change. But when you see things like the PSP, you can imagine that device turning easily into a video device as well as a gaming device, and some sort of communications device. The mobile phone is not really in the space yet. It’s been mostly small-screen games rather than networked location-based gaming that is taking advantage of the fact that the game has left the desktop.
Q: What are some of the factors that determine how much impact a technology is likely to have?
A: I think the main factor is the degree to which it builds on people’s existing practices, lifestyles, and social lives. That’s how you get these breakthrough technologies, like text messaging.