ABSTRACT
A series of individual interviews were also conducted during the second half of 2007 and early 2008, at the same university, to complement the survey. In order to gain insights from students with diverse backgrounds about the distance from their home country, a purposeful sampling method was employed. A total of eleven students participated in the interview. More specifically, four participants were from North America, four from the Middle East, one from Russia, one from South America, and one from Africa. The researcher developed an interview schedule that included a series of questions exploring the way these students manage their interpersonal relationships both locally and at a distance using various communication technologies. The interview questions included how they generally use communication technologies in their daily life in order to explore how they see the mobile phone in relation to other types of communication technologies. Each interview lasted one hour, taking a semi-structured approach.
