Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5766 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0484 (Online) Vol.8, No.14, 2018 71 Mobile Phone Use and Travel Behaviour of Adult Residents of Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria Ajani O. A.* Fakunle S. O. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Nigeria Abstract This study examined the influence of mobile phone use on the frequency of trips which Ile-Ife residents made on social activities. The study covered eleven electoral wards of the urban Ile-Ife. Purposive sampling method was used to select a sample size of 330 working adults who were mobile phones users and between aged 35 years and 50 years. Moreover, to obtain the qualitative data, purposive sampling method was adopted to obtain a total sample size of 22 for in-depth interviews. Contents analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the qualitative data and the quantitative data respectively. This study found an increase in frequency of trips made on visitation to friend and relatives, business/work, religion purposes while mobile phone use did not influence the frequency of trips made on recreational purposes and ceremonies. This study concluded that mobile phone use influenced the frequency of some trips which the adults in Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria made on social activities. Keywords: mobile phone, travel behaviour, social activities. 1. Introduction Before the introduction of mobile phone in Nigeria in 1999, interpersonal communications between people who were not living in the same location were through letters, landline phones and telegraph. Deregulation of telecommunication market in Nigeria in the year 2000 and the encouragement of Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to facilitate more entry of more mobile operators into the market in the year 2001 contributed to the growth of telecommunication system in Nigeria (Olayinka, 2006). Since then, there have been an astronomical growth in the cell phones usage by youths, adults and the aged in the country. The deregulation, according to Ogunbodede (2010) boosted the tele-density and caused it to rise nearly on daily basis. However, the introduction of GSM changed the whole communication terrain as over 33 million out of 160 million Nigerians own at least a mobile phone (mobility.com.ng, retrieved on 18 th June, 2016). This improved access to mobile phone has continued to generate interest among scholars on its functionality for social connection and its effects on travel behavior (Muhammed and Tomonori, 2009; Ling, 2000) One issue that has dominated academic discourse in recent years is the link between travel behaviour and mobile phone usage. While Ogunbodede (2010), Muhammed and Tomonori, (2009), Mckenna and Bargh (2000), Anna, Kari and Anssi (2006), Rapp and Skamedal (1996) reported that a reduction in physical movement and increased in social interaction as the interaction that could call for physical movement could have taken place on phone, others have indicated that mobile phone usage increased the number of trips people embarked on (e.g. Bakke, 2010; Akpore, 2008; Omotayo, Yifeng and Shyam, 2008; Ling, 2004). However, Ayodeji (2007) opined that the extent to which the use of telecommunications affects travel could be determined by the type and purpose of the interaction and socio-economic characteristics of the users. With a view to understanding the influence of mobile phone on social activities of Ile-Ife residents, the specific objective of the current study was to assess the influence of mobile phone use on the trips made on selected social activities. 2. Literature Review A variety of reasons have been adduced for physical movement of people from one place to another by different scholars. For instance, Campbell and Park (2008) and Adams (2000) noted that people consider the desirability of a place based on its social, economic, or environmental situation. However, an individual’s idea of place utility may or may not reflect the actual conditions of that location. Salomon and Schofar, (1998) opined that intervening opportunities are usually considered, so people tend to move to a location where such opportunity exists. There exist other several factors which social researchers have identified as potential cause of people’s movement in a city. Some of these include: Trade, which is the exchange or movement of goods and services between people, is one of the oldest human activities in the world, has been identified as one of the economic factors that cause mobility of people (Bakke, 2010; Olatunji, 2005). Ceremonies are common in African societies more than in other parts of the world (Elujoba, 2012). Ceremony brings people living in different locations together and thereby calls for mobility, the visitation made to the relatives living in different places, religious activities and festivals that call for the convergence of people from different locations (Mokhtarian, 2009). The quest for knowledge has been identified by Zulkefly and Baharundin (2009) as one of the factors for physical movement. He explained that journeys made on like educational excursions and research trips are in this category. Provision of infrastructure facilities, like health centers, potable water, electricity, job, gentrification and implementation of law to banish people from or restrict people to or from a certain location are identified by