Jane Gould is the voice of DearSmartphone and today, BeMobileSmart. She got her first cellphone on Easter Sunday in 2002 but only after her middle son, then in high school, threatened to leave home if they did not get a family plan. She recalls this day as the entry point to distracted driving and distracted parenting.
Jane began her career as a journalist but went on to get a doctoral degree from the Annenberg School of Communications. Her initial research was on distant environments, and how people become more susceptible to media influence when they do not have direct experience. There are many real-life cases when people first learn about a topic from the media, and it shapes their opinion formation and future interaction. Today, for example, only about ten percent of the population drives an electric vehicle. Yet those who have not seen an electric vehicle or set foot in one, still have strong opinions about their suitability.
Jane’s interest in new technology and mobility led her to work for AT&T, and later, to continue extended research in telecom networks. After getting a post-doctoral position in transportation, she was able to put together her pursuit of telecommunication impacts and mobility.
With academic colleagues at the London Business School and the University of California-Irvine and UCLA she has consulted, taught, and published numerous studies on electric vehicles, future mobility, teleshopping (using the phone to shop from home) and telework. When not shopping from home, she wrote a well-acclaimed book called “Aging in Suburbia” available on Amazon.
In 2015 she began teaching seniors how to use their smartphones for better mobility and access. She was also working on a campaign to reach distracted teen drivers and pedestrians who were looking down, not up. These projects made it evident that mobile phones were changing our personal lives and relationships, and not always for the better. The research morphed into a larger pursuit on smartphones, partial attention, and multitasking.
Jane serves on several transportation boards. She also offers classes at The College of Marin on electric vehicle transportation and digital mindfulness. She is curious, and seeks to communicate, how our phones and mobility converge. Although we have not achieved “the death of distance” we are closer to understanding it.
She is married to the same husband for over thirty years, had a beloved wire fox terrier, and is mom to three grown sons. She splits her time between Marin County and Cambridge, Mass. Her boys insist they use their smartphones…responsibly!
Email to: jane@bemobilesmart.com
