Irish people’s reliance on smartphones appears to have eased slightly compared with last year although the average phone user still manages to pick up their device more than three times every waking hour.
The typical phone user in Ireland now checks their device 50 times a day compared with an average of 55 times last year, with women proving slightly more inclined to pick up their phones than men, according to a new survey published by Deloitte.
Women check their phones 54 times each day on average, with men said to look at them 46 times every day, the consultancy firm’s Mobile Consumer Survey 2019, says.
The survey suggests one in three people check their phone within five minutes of waking for reasons other than switching off their alarm, while 4 percent admit reaching for their device more than 200 times per day or about once every five minutes.
Accessing WhatsApp is the most popular use of apps among smartphone users in Ireland with 85 per cent of people using their smartphones for this purpose
More than half of those polled said they felt that they were using their mobile phones too much with 29 percent suggesting that over-use of their devices was to blame for higher levels of distraction when performing tasks, with a similar number claiming their phones were to blame for their failure to get to bed on time.
Fear of dependency
A further 26 percent said they constantly felt they had to check their phone. This fear of dependency may explain why 66 percent of those polled said they were trying to limit mobile phone usage.
Accessing WhatsApp is the most popular use of apps among smartphone users in Ireland with 85 percent of people using their smartphones for this purpose. The next most common reason people use their smartphones is to access work email, on 72 percent, followed by making phone calls on 60 percent.
Just over one in four people stream movies or TV series on their mobiles at least once a week which may explain why 21 percent said they would switch to a 5G network as soon as it became available.
The survey reveals 96 percent of Irish people now own a mobile phone with 91 percent having a smartphone.