Browsing by Author "Quarmal, S.B."

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Acceptance of ICT-Enabled Services Among Bangladeshi Farmers
(Department of Zoology, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2014) Quarmal, S.B.
This paper is aimed at presenting a proposed work that focuses on the decision-making process regarding the acceptance of ICT-enabled services among Bangladeshi farmers. For this purpose, an Artificial Society Model (ASM hereafter), introduced by the authors, is being used. This psychology-oriented ASM of decision-making deals with knowledge-based decision-making process. It consists of a set of agents that represents groups of people who respond similarly to certain problem. The agents are characterized by the extent of knowledge that they have on the problem. The knowledge of an agent is expressed by a mathematical function. Thinking process of the agent is simulated by using a linkage model of cognitive psychology. A message is formed by the agent, based on the knowledge function and the conclusion (decision) of the agent on the given problem, which is also expressed mathematically, and is transferred to another agent and modifies the knowledge function of the agent that receives the message. As a result, the model enables to simulate dynamics of decision making processes in society. Such modeling helps us to understand various natural and social phenomena such as the issue discussed in this article, i.e. decision-making process regarding the acceptance of ICT-enabled services among Bangladeshi farmers.
Mobile Phone as parenting device in Dhaka City
(Department of Zoology and Environmental Management, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2016) Khan, H.K.; Quarmal, S.B.
The study was aimed at exploring the usage of mobile phone as a parenting device in Dhaka City and its impact. The study deals with both qualitative and quantitative data, hence, a triangulation strategy was chosen to gather the data, interpret the facts and analyze the results. The quantitative data was gathered through a structured questionnaire survey that included 100 respondents using random sampling method. For qualitative data gathering, eight parents were interviewed face-face using a semi-structured interview schedule contacting open ended questionnaire. Most of the respondents in the study were from middle income nuclear families of 3 to 5 members. Educational qualification of most of the respondents ranged between secondary and undergraduate level. The findings show that all the respondents perceived mobile phone as an inseparable part of life. It was also found that, the respondents overwhelmingly supported the idea of providing mobile phones to teens. The main reason given was “getting updates and providing directives while they are away”. However, many parents considered the other uses of mobile phone- entertainment, social networking and education. Regarding the central focus of the study, i.e., usage of mobile phone as a parenting device in Dhaka City, the researcher found that it can strengthen parental control, but simultaneously, it might as well have the opposite impact, i.e., weakening parental control. It depends on mutual trust and respect between the teens and their parents as the present study reveals that parents in Dhaka City mostly use the calling feature of the mobile phone; even though many parents use smartphones, and know about the apps those can explore the location of a person without acknowledging him/her, none of them uses such apps. On the other hand, parents cannot completely control the usage of mobile phones by their teens. They can talk to anyone or use Internet the way they want to without acknowledging their parents. They can fix time and place for meeting with friends over phone as well which keeps their friends unknown to their parents. However, considering Prensky’s (2001) argument that the teenagers of today’s generation are digital natives and parents are digital immigrants, it’s quite obvious that the ‘digital immigrants’ must cope up with the situation, and properly learn the usage of modern technologies if they want to use these for parenting. And, from the findings of this study, it is quite clear that the parents in Dhaka City are still far away from this.
Role of social media in shaping communication behavior of urban youth in Bangladesh
(Department of Zoology and Environmental Management, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2016) Quarmal, S.B.; Osmani, M.H.
It is evident that social media is making strong impact in changing the patterns of interpersonal communication globally. However, the impact is not the same everywhere, especially, it may differ in urban and sub-urban/rural space as well as based on accessibility and quality of Internet. In Bangladesh, few recent phenomena like Shahbag movement have shown that the social media have become a very important communication tool among the urban youth. This paper aims at analyzing what sort of role the social media is playing in shaping their communication patterns and behavior, and how the other factors such as mobility are taking part in such transformation. The study is exploratory, explanatory and descriptive in design, and uses a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods, namely questionnaire survey and in-depth interview, for data gathering that included 300 students in three cities and towns across the country. To gain more insight out of the survey, academics were interviewed as well. The study reveals that social media has become such an inseparable part in Bangladeshi young people’s lives that they even “feel like crazy” in its absence. The study also reveals that the Dhaka-youths have become more dependent on social media for their day to day communication than the youth living in other two cities. Their interaction with friends, family and relatives is much lesser than that in other two cities. Another interesting finding of the study is that a significant part of the youth barely knows about the means of human communication except social media.