Alarming figures that were released yesterday revealed that Brits tend to use their mobile phone to conduct over 221 tasks a day.
The study involving 2000 smartphone owners, revealed the unbelievable extent to which users are reliant upon their handheld devices in everyday life.
The study revealed that around 7.31 am is the first time in the day that we reach for our mobiles to check personal messages, emails and any social media updates that you may have missed during the night. During that short spell in bed it is also believed that the average user will read up on the news, the weather and send a message to a friend or two. Other popular tasks that users tend to conduct before they head into school or work is checking their online banking, the train times and even uploading an Instagram image for good measure.
“The vast majority of Brits have acknowledged that they sometimes use their phone without even noticing…”
The study was commissioned by digital marketing agency Tecmark and speaking on the findings, Managing Director Richard Heyes said, “For most of us, it’s now second nature. And certainly we’re not surprised to see this huge reliance on our handheld devices. But many people may not realise just how many times a day they check their phone or carry out a simple task on it.”
Heyes also went on to claim that the vast majority of users are all guilty of following the same pattern and said one of the reasons for this was due to how easy it is to access a handheld device by further suggesting, “It’s so much easier checking your phone for Facebook updates rather than waiting for a desktop or laptop computer to load – we don’t have that much time in the mornings.’’
Not only do Brits pick up their devices more than 1,500 times a week, but further figures suggest that the average user is on their phone for 3 hours and 16 minutes every day. Accumulated, these figures show that users spend close to 1 full day a week on their phone, with 4 out of every 10 people that took part of the survey suggesting that they feel completely lost when away from their phone.
The vast majority of Brits have acknowledged that they sometimes use their phone without even noticing that they are doing so, with an astonishing two thirds of the interviewees admitting that they have logged into their Facebook account and browsed the news feed without even noticing, with 4 out of 10 stating that they have also done the same regarding their emails.
The study also revealed that computer and laptop popularity had decreased with the emergence of smartphones, with users on average conducting 140 tasks per day on these devices, which is just over half the usage of smartphone devices, strengthening the smartphones position as the ‘go-to-gadget’.
A finding that is unlikely to surprise most people is that users tend to check social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter 14 times days a day on their smartphone, but what is surprising is that internet food shopping has been revealed to be more popular on a mobile phone device rather than a desktop or a laptop, which is strange considering the complexity of the task.
Even aimless browsing on the internet is slightly more popular on the smartphone than any other device, but reading maps splits opinion with users tending to use these application services 4 times a day on both devices.
Heyes further claimed, “More than 1,500 times a week is a lot of times to pick up a small gadget like a mobile phone and demonstrates perfectly just how engrained in our daily lives our smartphones have become.”
