Posts Tagged mobile internet

By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, introducing it’s new report on The Mobile Difference in today’s society, notes that in the early 1980s, Americans started spending more time on the telephone. From 1980 to 1987, the number of minutes spent on the phone increased by 24%, three times the rate of population growth. Though fax machines and the personal computing revolution might have spurred growth voice traffic, not more than 10% of the growth.
The cause was determined to be the telephone answering machine, in just 28% of homes in 1987. However, these new devices meant once-missed calls were returned and completed calls encouraged more calling. The answering machine served as an accelerant into Americans’ existing calling patterns.

In a similar way, says the author, mobile internet access is drawing people into more frequent online use.  This finding is the cornerstone the Project’s study, finding that 39% of the adult population have seen the frequency of their online use grow as their reliance on mobile devices has increased.

Across those groups, there is a lot of variation on what these changes mean to users. Some find this extra connectivity a platform for self expression. Others are not entirely positive about ICTs’ (Information and Communication Technology) impacts on their lives.

In addition, there is 61% of the adult population who do not feel the pull of mobility further into the digital world. Across the groups that make up this part of the population, several have a lot of technology at hand and have seen their tech assets grow in recent years. Yet ICTs remain on the periphery in their lives, suggesting that:

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