We’re not sure it is the place of the communications and broadcast regulator to describe the transition of the generations, but the UK’s Ofcom has tried to do just that, in the tradition of the Pew Research Center in the US. Its conclusions are best summed up graphically (see below).
Clearly older generations rely far more on email and the telephone, and the younger generations on instant messaging and social networks. Anyone who did not already know this has been living in a tree for the past 15 years.
Some of this is, of course, economic. When you are young you avoid phone calls, because they eat cellular time, and since you are online all day, you respond in situations where it would be impolite to take a call, by texting. Cellular carriers offer free texts on many packages, because they are so cheap to the operator. So it’s not a surprise that younger people opt for cheaper services.
So far, so good, but Ofcom has gone further talking about the process of getting away from the constant connectivity we are all hooked on as if it were an addiction.
Ofcom claims that fifteen million UK internet users have undertaken a ‘digital detox’ in a bid to strike a healthier balance between technology and life beyond the screen and bases this on this study of 2,025 adults and 500 teenagers.
Ofcom says one in three adult internet users (34%), equivalent to 15 million people in the UK, has sought a period of time offline, with one in ten (11%) doing so in the last week alone. People spent this detox time taking a day or even a week off the internet, and 5% went web-free for up to a whole month.
The most common reasons for taking a ‘tech timeout’ were to spend more time doing other things (cited by 44%) and more time talking to friends and family (38%).
Many people found their time offline to be a positive experience: a third (33%) said they felt more productive, 27% found it liberating, while a quarter (25%) enjoyed life more. However, 16% experienced a ‘fear of missing out’ (‘FOMO’) while on the web wagon, 15% felt lost and 14% ‘cut-off’.
We’re pretty sure that those who feel the need to take time off, are those who did not grow up with this level of communication, and they still find it is a kind of addiction. While the truly youthful are simply used to it and it offers little or no pressure to them. The essence of email is that a reply is needed, and that you are expected to read your email dutifully, especially work emails. But social media can be a fire and forget thing, view it when you want, only respond if you feel like it, so the mix that the youthful take on seems healthier in that sense.
Ofcom says that its report shows faster internet access is more widely available than ever before, and by the end of last year 9.2 million fixed broadband connections were superfast – increasing from 7.1 million in 201 and 4G accounted for almost half of all mobile subscriptions.
Some 71% of UK adults now own a smartphone – up from 66% a year ago – and it remains the most popular device for accessing the internet.
Three in four internet users (75%) consider the web ‘important’ to their daily lives. Nearly eight in 10 (78%) agree it helps keep them up-to-date about current affairs and social issues, while almost two thirds (63%) credit it with inspiring them to try new things such as travel destinations, restaurants, recipes or entertainment.
Half (51%) of all internet users agreed that, because of the internet, they never feel bored, while 82% feel that communicating over the web has made life easier.
However, four in 10 UK adults (40%) felt they’d been ‘smart-snubbed’ (ignored by a friend or relative too engrossed in their smartphone or tablet) at least once a week; while 17% said this happened on a daily basis. Try walking down a major metropolitan street, and you will enjoy “smart collisions” with people, head down in a smart phone, walking straight into you.
The research also suggests some people are choosing to text or instant message friends and family instead of talking face-to-face, even though they’re sitting in the same room. Just over a quarter of UK adults (26%) said this occurred at home, while a third of teenagers (32%) have done so at school. Can’t wait until social media becomes a virtual reality experience, then we can really snub real people.