In the past decade, smartphone addiction has become a phenomenal problem because people spend more and more time browsing social media and playing mobile games. There is even an English word specifically used to describe this fear of having no mobile phones or mobile services, namely "nomophobia".
In 2019, a study released by asurion showed that American residents check their smartphones on average 96 times a day, or about once every 10 minutes (if 8 hours of sleep are included).
The company recently conducted a follow-up study and found that this number has nearly quadrupled to 352 times a day, which means that Americans check their mobile phones every three minutes on average.
The survey was conducted from March 2 to 9 this year and involved nearly 2000 American adults of different ages. According to asurion, three-quarters of the respondents think their mobile phones are necessities rather than luxuries, and 20% of them are unwilling to leave their mobile phones for more than a few hours. Another 75% even admitted that they would bring their mobile phones into the bathroom.
The statistics of generations are more interesting. 75% of baby boomers and 76% of Gen X think their mobile phones are a necessity. This is higher than that of the more skilled generation Z (71%) and millennials (68%).
As for the reason why they are so dependent on mobile phones, 86% said that they mainly keep in touch with friends and family through phone calls, text messages and social media.
Photography and video are the second largest reason, accounting for 61%, followed by mobile banking, accounting for 46%, mobile games, accounting for 40%, and online shopping, accounting for 31%.
