Study: One In Five Young Adults Has Mobile Addiction

As we’ve already seen in study after study, young adults are becoming increasingly attached to their mobile devices.  New research on this topic not only confirms those earlier findings, but has even resulted in a label for those who seemed compelled to habitually check or otherwise use their smartphones: mobile addicts.

In its recently released report, Kantar Media found that more than 80 percent of those between the ages of 11 and 24 now own mobile devices, and that one out of every five individuals in this age range demonstrates signs of mobile addiction.

Mobile addicts are identified by the following characteristics: they send 100 or more text messages a week, connect to the internet via mobile every day, admit to constantly checking their phones for messages and even say that they “could not live without the internet on their mobile.”

But what also makes this group stand apart from all others is their comfort level with using advanced features on their phones.  While nearly everyone on mobile makes calls, sends text messages, takes pictures and listens to music, mobile addicts are also more likely to be adept at using apps that broadens what they use their handheld devices for.  For example:

How Do Consumers Use And Value Online And Social Media During Purchases?

For anyone who’s still struggling with whether and how to incorporate social media into marketing campaigns, here’s a somewhat obvious, yet brilliant, way to determine how consumers use online channels on their path to purchase —just ask them!

That’s what Radius Global Market Research did, and the results contain some compelling lessons for marketers developing online media strategies.

The survey questions centered on what kinds of products consumers researched prior to making a decision to buy and which platforms they used.  As in earlier studies, respondents indicated that online research played a major role in helping them make informed decisions.  This was particularly true for big ticket items, or products for which people have strong emotional investments.

Here are a few salient findings that caught my eye:

Social Media Dominates Smartphone Internet Time

From young adults admitting  they’re tethered to their smartphones, to the near doubling of tablet sales between 2011 and 2012, it’s obvious that mobile devices have taken the world by storm.

But what are people doing with these gadgets?

As it turns out, mobile device users are spending their mobile minutes to . . . <insert drum roll here> . . . check  their social media accounts.

After interviewing more than 2,600 consumers between the ages of 13 and 64, marketing research firm GfK found that people spend nearly one-third (31 percent) of all their mobile access time on social media –and that’s nearly double the amount of time they pop on to check email (16 percent), the activity that came in second.

“Reading in-the-moment status updates and posting short comments, replies and likes are activities tailor-made for smartphones,” explained GfK’s media Vice President  Robert DeFelice.  “Apps encourage a targeted, deliberate approach to online time that consumers may not even clearly associate with the Internet.”

In a previous study, researchers found that people using laptops and PCs spend their time differently than they do on smartphones.  For example, when connected via PCs, people engage in social media less than 20 percent of the time—about the same amount of time they spend reading email, and only slightly more than time spent watching online videos or searching for information.

But according to these new results,

Study: Millennials Are Tethered To Mobile Devices

As I’ve said before, consumers crave mobile. Everywhere you turn these days, you can see  people consulting their mobile devices while shopping, eating, walking, waiting . . . even while sitting side-by- side with friends, each on his or her own phone.  Is this devotion—obsession?—to smartphones and tablets simply a harmless sign of the times, or could it have larger, perhaps even unhealthy, social and cultural implications?

Earlier this year, Salzburg Global Seminar tracked the mobile activity of college students over a 24-hour period.  Interestingly, this research revealed that many in this age group appeared to be actually tethered to their phones, literally unable in many cases to put them down.

Moreover, this attachment to mobile devices by those in their late teens and early twenties is not confined to a particular country or even hemisphere.  Researchers found that the behaviors were universal; the study included more than 800 students from eight universities on three different continents and representing 52 nationalities.

Other key findings included: 

75 Percent of Employees Use Personal Mobile Devices to Access Social Media While at Work

Earlier research indicated that compared to older workers, younger employees are far more accepting of social network use during the workday. However, a new study suggests that more and more employees (of all ages) are using social media at work to communicate and collaborate with co-workers, customers, partners and acquaintances.

SilkRoad Technology surveyed 1,100 US and Canadian employees regarding their social media activities, and the results showed that: