Can you Turn it Off? The Spatial and Social Context of Mobile Disturbance

Contemporary mobile devices constantly interrupt people with notifications in various and changing physical environments, each with its own different social settings. To understand how users perceive disturbance to their social environment, we analyze the results of a 3-week user study with 50 participants. Using a mixture of experience sampling and log analysis, we show that perceptions of disturbance are influenced by the location, the activity carried out, the social environment, the norms that govern interaction in that location, the activity of the user on the device, and perceptions of that activity. In contrast to existing theories, we show that norms, such as whether the place is considered private or public, are more powerful than other factors. We conclude the paper by suggesting a new theoretical understanding that ties places and social contexts to mobile computing experience.