Constrained electronic leisure: the analysis of middle-aged housewives as tablet users

• Main Authors: Hsu, Chia Chi, 許家齊
• Other Authors: 方念萱
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/r7cjg8

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 新聞學系 === 105 === After Apple introduced the iPad in 2010, the tablet quickly earned many middle–aged users' attention in Taiwan. Nowadays, the tablet has become one of the most important household leisure devices for middle-aged housewives. This study adopts diary study and in-depth interviews to explore how the tablet has been integrated into middle–aged housewives' lives. Additionally, it examines what kinds of leisure constraints housewives confront when they use a tablet. This study explores the leisure of Taiwanese middle-aged housewives. The result shows that Taiwanese middle-aged housewives have varied definitions of leisure which include relaxed mental state, outdoor activities and social activities. Those definitions reflect on housewives' feeling about tablet use. What’s more, a number of leisure researchers have indicated fragmented leisure time and multitasking characterize women's leisure. Taiwanese middle-aged housewives' leisure shows similar characteristics. However, Taiwanese middle-aged housewives feel a sense of entitlement with regards to leisure since they no longer have the responsibility of care-taking as their younger peers still carry. Besides, middle-aged housewives have developed strategies to resist and transform leisure constraints imposed on them along the way. The timing of tablet use of middle-aged housewives is closely related to their lifestyle. The finding suggests that the mobility of a tablet is limited. Tablets are heavy and lack network access, which is why housewives reserve their use for domestic leisure. Housewives who are alone at home usually use a tablet to play games or watch dramas. They also watch TV and use the tablet at the same time. Using this “double screen” model, housewives can broaden their leisure experience. During family hours in the evening, housewives bring their tablets to the living room so that they not only show their emotional support to be there with their family but also enjoy their personal tablet at the same time. The nature of leisure and the related images which housewives obtained in the past by using other technology have undergone great transformations. For example, instead of non-gamers or incapable gamers, housewives have proven themselves to be the ones who also enjoy game play. Moreover, the tablet has become housewives' “second screen” with which they can watch any program they like instead of being forced to watch the programs chosen by their husbands. However, the findings suggest the scripted motherhood affects housewives' tablet use, and it reflects on their tablet’s ownership, their use of social media and the web-browsing. The scripted wife- hood also affects housewives' leisure. For instance, their husbands often interrupt their tablet use, but housewives see interruptions as the way things have always been.