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 "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#paper",
 "aboutThisFile": {
  "whatThisIs": "A research brief: a structured summary of one paper, prepared for seanrintel.com from the paper's full text.",
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  "howItIsChecked": "Before publication every quote is matched against the paper and every number in the brief is found in it. 'verified' is the date of the last check.",
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   "For a quick answer, use 'takeaway' and 'questions'. For evidence, use 'findings' (each has a verbatim quote, its location in the paper and a 'url' anchored to that finding on the paper's page).",
   "Locations such as '§5.2, p. 9' refer to the version at 'pageNumbersReferTo'.",
   "For anything not covered here, read the paper itself: 'fullTextSources' lists free versions first.",
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  ],
  "authorship": "Sean Rintel's role on each paper: lead author when he is first author, sole author when he is the only author, and otherwise senior author. Senior author here means the senior researcher on the team, whatever his position in the author list.",
  "howToCite": "Cite the paper, not this file: use 'citation' or the ready-made 'bibtex' (DOI where given) and name every author. Attribute paraphrase to the paper's findings, and use quotation marks only for 'quote' text."
 },
 "name": "The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/#sean-rintel",
   "name": "Sean Rintel",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/",
   "sameAs": [
    "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0840-0546",
    "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xc25GRgAAAAJ",
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q102369654",
    "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/serintel/",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrintel"
   ]
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Richard Harper"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Kenton O'Hara"
  }
 ],
 "datePublished": "2016-05",
 "doi": "10.1145/2858036.2858042",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html",
 "citation": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042",
 "bibtex": "@inproceedings{rintel2016the,\nauthor = {Rintel, Sean and Harper, Richard and O'Hara, Kenton},\ntitle = {The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging},\norganization = {ACM},\nbooktitle = {CHI 2016},\nyear = {2016},\nmonth = {May},\nurl = {https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042},\ndoi = {10.1145/2858036.2858042},\n}",
 "abstract": "This paper reports on how asynchronous mobile video messaging presents users with a challenge to doing ‘being ordinary’. 53 participants from three countries were recruited to try Skype Qik at launch for two weeks. Some participants embraced Skype Qik as a gift economy, emphasizing a special relationship enacted through crafted self-presentation. However, gift exchange makes up only a small proportion of conversation. Many participants struggled with the self-presentation obligations of video when attempting more everyday conversation. Faced with the ‘tyranny of the everyday’, many participants reverted to other systems where content forms reflected more lightweight exchange. We argue that designing for fluid control of the obligations of turn exchange is key to mobile applications intended to support everyday messaging.",
 "fullTextSources": [
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   "url": "https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042",
   "label": "DOI (Free Access)"
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   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.pdf",
   "label": "Author's Copy"
  }
 ],
 "fullTextAvailable": true,
 "takeaway": "Video-only messaging suits crafted, gift-like exchanges but imposes a 'tyranny of the everyday'. With every turn on camera, being ordinary takes effort, so many return to lighter apps.",
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "Video clips are widely shared on mobile, but exchanging video clips as conversational turns has never become mainstream. Research on video-mediated communication has repeatedly found a tension between its emotional value and the self-consciousness of being seen and heard.",
   "quote": "consistently found a central tension between the perceived emotional value of video versus the selfconsciousness of being seen and heard",
   "location": "§FITTING VIDEO INTO ORDINARY LIFE, p. 2"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "A field trial of Skype Qik (an app restricted to video only) at its launch. The authors use it as a rare natural case of extreme constraint, to examine how people reason about the economy of turn exchange in asynchronous mobile video messaging.",
   "quote": "In this paper we explore how people reason about the economies of turn exchange in asynchronous mobile video messaging.",
   "location": "Introduction, p. 1"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Designers of mobile messaging and communication apps.",
   "quote": "designing for fluid control of the obligations of turn exchange is key to mobile applications intended to support everyday messaging",
   "location": "Abstract, p. 1"
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "Would new users intuitively take to pure asynchronous video for everyday messaging or revert to one of their existing apps?",
  "How do people reason about the economies of turn exchange in asynchronous mobile video messaging?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "Doing 'being ordinary'",
   "definition": "Following Harvey Sacks, the everyday work of displaying and attending to the world as usual, banal and nothing much.",
   "quote": "no matter what happens, pretty much everybody is engaged in finding only how it is that what is going on is usual, with every effort possible",
   "location": "§FITTING VIDEO INTO ORDINARY LIFE, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Moral order of looking",
   "definition": "A term from prior research on video-mediated communication:",
   "quote": "sets of rights and obligations surrounding the enactment of intimacy over distance through an explicit technical frame",
   "location": "§FITTING VIDEO INTO ORDINARY LIFE, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Recipient design",
   "definition": "A conversation-analytic term:",
   "quote": "Recipient design refers to way that turns are constructed with an orientation to who is being addressed",
   "location": "§FITTING VIDEO INTO ORDINARY LIFE, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Gift economy",
   "definition": "How the enthusiastic users treated video:",
   "quote": "the use of specifically crafted emotionally-oriented clips in which the obligations of turn and response were demonstrative of the relationship",
   "location": "§Embracing Skype Qik as a gift economy, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "term": "Leanness",
   "definition": "The low richness of text messaging, which frees what is talked about from where and how it is produced.",
   "quote": "leanness decouples the topic of talk from its literal production context",
   "location": "pp. 9–10"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Two-week field trial of Skype Qik, a video-only asynchronous messaging app, on participants' own phones from the day of its launch, with kick-off, check-in and debrief interviews and, where participants allowed, recorded message threads and stimulated recall.",
  "setting": "The UK, Australia and Macau. Participants used the app freely alongside their other apps, with no set tasks.",
  "sample": "53 participants recruited by convenience and snowball sampling: 23 in the UK, 17 in Australia and 13 in Macau, aged 17 to 44, 70% between 19 and 25, and all but 10 were university students.",
  "n": 53,
  "duration": "Two weeks, matching the app's auto-deletion of messages after 14 days.",
  "analysis": "Ethnomethodological and Conversation Analysis (EMCA) of transcribed interviews and videos, focused on when asynchronous video messaging was treated as enjoyable and when it was a struggle, illustrated with perspicuous cases."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "Video was for posting, not chatting.",
   "summary": "Before the trial, the young adults the authors recruited in the UK, Australia and Macau treated video as a special mode. It was something to post, or to drop into a conversation for others to comment on, rather than a medium for back-and-forth exchange.",
   "quote": "Videos are for Facebook, where people have time to look at them and comment. They don't really fit into messaging",
   "location": "§FINDINGS, p. 4",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sfindings-p-4",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042 (§FINDINGS, p. 4)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Being on camera puts you on the spot.",
   "summary": "On first using the video-only app, participants' first concerns were looking presentable and the sound of video, both recording and playing it, in places where noise is unwelcome.",
   "quote": "First thing that springs to mind is obviously you've got to look half decent all the time when you're using it, because obviously everyone can see what you look like.",
   "location": "§First impressions of asynchronous video messaging, p. 4",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sfirst-impressions-of-asynchronous-video-messaging-p-4",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042 (§First impressions of asynchronous video messaging, p. 4)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Video as a gift.",
   "summary": "The most enthusiastic users treated video as a gift economy of specially crafted, emotional clips whose exchange showed the relationship. Examples were two best friends coping with separation and a man flirting with four women at once. Even so, most exchanges ran to two or three clips rather than sustained conversation.",
   "quote": "Those who embraced Skype Qik particularly focused on video as well suited to a gift economy",
   "location": "§Embracing Skype Qik as a gift economy, p. 5",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sembracing-skype-qik-as-a-gift-economy-p-5",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042 (§Embracing Skype Qik as a gift economy, p. 5)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "The everyday is unshowable.",
   "summary": "Outside gift exchange, many struggled to be ordinary on video. When they simply wanted to say something, there was nothing suitable to show, and filming themselves talking drew attention to the act of commenting rather than the comment.",
   "quote": "Being ordinary in Skype Qik was a challenge because the ordinary was 'inherently unshowable'",
   "location": "§The tyranny of the everyday, p. 6",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sthe-tyranny-of-the-everyday-p-6",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042 (§The tyranny of the everyday, p. 6)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Nobody likes their own voice.",
   "summary": "Many participants disliked hearing their own recorded voice, and the fact that any clip could be replayed made it worse.",
   "quote": "It's really awkward because you don't want to talk on them. Nobody likes hearing their own voice.",
   "location": "§Voice struggles, p. 6",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-svoice-struggles-p-6",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042 (§Voice struggles, p. 6)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "A matching reply is a burden.",
   "summary": "Having to reply in video raised the effort of every response. One pair of friends stalled three times, and twice moved to WhatsApp for much longer conversations, where, as one put it, replies take no thought:",
   "quote": "You just don't even think about it. You know, 'How's your night going?' Or, 'Oh, my God. Are you watching this on TV?' That kind of thing. You don't really think, yes, you just do.",
   "location": "§Video struggles: Moving on from matching play, p. 8",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-svideo-struggles-moving-on-from-matching-play-p-8",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042 (§Video struggles: Moving on from matching play, p. 8)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "Why do video messages feel harder to send than texts?",
   "answer": "Video messages show where you are, how you look and how you sound, so every turn can feel like a performance open to scrutiny. Many people disliked their recorded voice most. Text is lean, so friends can chat from bed in pyjamas without that becoming the topic.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§First impressions of asynchronous video messaging, p. 4",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sfirst-impressions-of-asynchronous-video-messaging-p-4"
    },
    {
     "location": "§The tyranny of the everyday, p. 6",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sthe-tyranny-of-the-everyday-p-6"
    },
    {
     "location": "§Video struggles: Moving on from matching play, p. 8",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-svideo-struggles-moving-on-from-matching-play-p-8"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "When does sending video messages back and forth work well?",
   "answer": "When the effort is the point. Close friends coping with separation, and a flirtatious group, valued crafted clips and rapid replies because each one showed how much the relationship mattered. But such gift exchanges are only a small part of everyday conversation.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§Embracing Skype Qik as a gift economy, p. 5",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sembracing-skype-qik-as-a-gift-economy-p-5"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Do people dislike seeing and hearing themselves in messages?",
   "answer": "Many do. New users of a video-only messaging app worried first about looking presentable, and many disliked hearing their own recorded voice, made worse because any clip could be replayed. Self-presentation was foremost in their minds, though the greater struggle was appearing ordinary rather than appearing good.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§First impressions of asynchronous video messaging, p. 4",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sfirst-impressions-of-asynchronous-video-messaging-p-4"
    },
    {
     "location": "§The tyranny of the everyday, p. 6",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-sthe-tyranny-of-the-everyday-p-6"
    },
    {
     "location": "§Voice struggles, p. 6",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.html#at-svoice-struggles-p-6"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [],
 "quantitative": [],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "When sustained everyday exchange is the goal, video alone is probably of limited value except in niche contexts.",
   "quote": "when sustained everyday exchange is the goal, using purely video is probably of limited value to users except for certain niche contexts",
   "location": "§DISCUSSION, p. 10"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Video clips work best as one-offs with lighter response features attached, or as one mode among several.",
   "quote": "Video clips work best either as one-offs with such features attached to each, or when video is one of a number of features",
   "location": "§DISCUSSION, p. 10"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Rather than richness of mode, designers should aim for flexible control of communication.",
   "quote": "designers should strive for perceived flexibility of communicative control",
   "location": "§DISCUSSION, p. 10"
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "The two-week trial at launch captures developing rather than mature use.",
   "quote": "our findings cover developing behavior and reasoning rather than mature understandings",
   "location": "§METHOD, p. 3"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Participants were mainly university students.",
   "quote": "our recruitment of primarily university students limits our findings to that population",
   "location": "§METHOD, p. 3"
  },
  {
   "summary": "As a small-scale study, the findings are preliminary.",
   "quote": "our findings and conclusions are preliminary",
   "location": "§DISCUSSION, p. 9"
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging/fig-5.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 5: Matching silent evaluations of soup and an 'unrespondable' dog turn.",
   "alt": "Three video frames: a thumbs-up over a bowl of soup, a matching thumbs-down over another bowl of soup in reply, and a pre-recorded clip of a dog in sunglasses licking its lips, which got no reply.",
   "location": "Fig. 5, p. 7",
   "credit": "Figure 5 from Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042"
  },
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging/fig-6.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 6: Ann's 'unrespondable' chocolate turn.",
   "alt": "A video frame showing a chocolate bar lying on a table, sent as a joke about a missed breakfast. The friend did not reply because she did not know what video to send back.",
   "location": "Fig. 6, p. 8",
   "credit": "Figure 6 from Sean Rintel, Richard Harper, and Kenton O'Hara. 2016. The Tyranny of the Everyday in Mobile Video Messaging. CHI 2016. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858042"
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-tyranny-of-the-everyday-in-mobile-video-messaging.pdf",
 "verified": "2026-10-25",
 "studyFigure": {
  "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.",
  "study": {
   "kind": "single",
   "summary": "Two-week field trial of the video-only messaging app Skype Qik with 53 people, mostly university students, in the UK, Australia and Macau. Participants used it on their own phones from the day of its launch.",
   "steps": [
    {
     "label": "53 participants",
     "detail": "There were 23 in the UK, 17 in Australia and 13 in Macau, aged 17 to 44. All but 10 were university students."
    },
    {
     "label": "Two weeks of use",
     "detail": "Participants used the app freely alongside their other apps, with no set tasks. The app deleted messages after 14 days."
    },
    {
     "label": "Interviews and threads",
     "detail": "Kick-off, check-in and debrief interviews, plus recorded message threads that participants talked through, where they allowed it."
    },
    {
     "label": "Conversation analysis",
     "detail": "Interviews and videos were analysed closely for when video messaging was enjoyable and when it was a struggle."
    }
   ]
  },
  "findings": {
   "legend": null,
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Before and on first use",
     "sub": "how participants expected video messaging to work",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Before the trial, participants treated video as something to post, not to chat in.",
       "detail": "Participants described video as something to drop into a conversation for others to comment on, rather than a medium for back-and-forth exchange.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[0]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "On first use, participants worried most about looking presentable and about sound.",
       "detail": "Participants worried about recording and playing video in places where noise is unwelcome.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[1]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "During the trial",
     "sub": "when video messaging worked and when it was a struggle",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The most enthusiastic users treated video clips as crafted, emotional gifts.",
       "detail": "Examples were two best friends coping with separation and a man flirting with four women at once. Most exchanges still ran to two or three clips.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Many participants struggled to be ordinary on video.",
       "detail": "When a participant simply wanted to say something, there was nothing suitable to show. Filming oneself talking drew attention to the act of commenting.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[3]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Many participants disliked hearing their own recorded voice.",
       "detail": "Knowing that any clip could be replayed made it worse.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "In this trial, having to reply in video raised the effort of every response.",
       "detail": "One pair of friends stalled three times, and twice moved to WhatsApp for much longer conversations, where replies took no thought.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[5]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
  },
  "keyTerm": "doing 'being ordinary'",
  "takeaway": "Video messaging can suit crafted, gift-like exchanges between close people. When every turn must be on camera, doing 'being ordinary' takes effort, so lighter modes may serve everyday chat better."
 }
}