Americans Panic if Disconnected from Technology
Americans are using their wireless devices and the Internet at such a rate that they actually feel anxiety and stress when disconnected from them. A new report has found that sixty-eight (68%) per cent experience some level of anxiety when disconnected, with 27% experiencing 'acute' anxiety.
Among the findings:
- 83% American cell phone users say "my cell phone goes everywhere I go"
- 63% agree "I'm the kind of person who likes to be in touch all the time"
- 63% of BlackBerry users use their device even when in the washroom
- 37% use laptops in the bedroom "frequently"
The report finds that there are four key reasons why dependency on wireless and Internet devices shows no signs of slowing.
- Safety: people feel the world is not as safe as it used to be (79% agree), so parents are more likely to ensure their children have cell phones from a young age.
- Work: people feel that if they're not connected, they will be left out of the information flow. And if they disconnect for a day or two, they often return to work to face a massive backlog to catch up on.
- Social life: primarily among young people, there's a feeling that if they're disconnected and unable to text or call or check their Facebook profiles or MySpace pages, they'll miss the party
- Navigation: People build a dependency on their cellphone or smartphones, using it to store their contacts, schedule and email, making it almost impossible to live without.
The data for the report come from SRG's Digital Life America tracking study for the October 2006 to February 2008 period in the U.S. Four waves of research conducted in this period interviewed a total of 4,994 Americans aged 12 and older on all aspects of their use of and attitudes toward communications and entertainment technologies. The samples for Digital Life America are nationally-representative of the U.S. online population.
You can download the report (pdf file, 10 pages) from the SRG website
Posted to the site on 13th March 2008
