The phone addiction
People often think of the mobile phone as modern technology but they've been available for more than twenty years now, and in the last five years, for many people they have become more important than alcohol, sex, and even chocolate.
It took 15 years in the UK for mobiles to reach the point where half the population had one. By 2007 there were more mobile phones in the UK than people to make calls, with 70 million SIM cards issued, and 80% of adults had one. Nowadays it is even more widespread, with more children having phones of their own too and around 130 billion text messages sent annually in the UK.
We see similar trends on a global scale. By the end of 2008, almost half of the world's population had a mobile phone and today approximately three quarters of humanity carries a mobile, with about eight trillion text messages sent in the last twelve months.
Growth in smart phones has been significant and around a third of mobile phone users are using smart phones, although not all of them are using them for web browsing. Equally though, there are growing numbers of people who do not have a computer at home and who probably do not consider themselves computer users but are now using their smart phones to access websites. Interestingly, according to one study by Google, more than 70% of mobile web users have used their mobile at some time or other to check for more information after seeing a TV ad, but equally interesting, other studies indicate an equally large percentage of retailers still have websites which do not work well within the confines of the mobile. Keep in mind though, that outside of making a phone call, the commonest use for phones remains text messaging, closely followed by photography.
Many surveys, including those carried out for Ofcom, find that roughly five out of ten people have admitted to being addicted to their mobile phone. Amongst teenagers, more than 10% said they sometimes send more than 200 text messages in a day and 40% claim they can send a text message whilst blindfolded.
The situation amongst the adult population is no better. 40% of adults have their phones turned on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and in one survey of what was, I hope, hardened mobile phone users, 15% of those surveyed admitted to pulling out their phone to pretend to make a call as a way of avoiding talking to someone at a party, 83% said they keep their phone by the bed at night, and 15% said they have interrupted sex to answer a phone call.
29th November 2011
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.