A recent report has suggested that young people are spending less time on their smartphone for the first time ever.
The study was conducted by market research agency Kantar TNS, and it found that people in the 16-24 age category are spending an average of 3.8 hours on their smartphones on a daily basis. This is compared to the figure of last year, which was slightly higher at just under four hours a day (3.9 hours).
Although the change is small, it does represent the first time that smartphone use has decreased among this age group.
A third of young people who took part in the study stated that they believed that they were spending too much time on their mobile devices and sought to cut that time down.
Kantar TNS also found that usage was rising quickly at the other end of the spectrum. The report found that the biggest growth in smartphone usage came from pensioners. The time this age group spends on smartphones has rocketed this year, increasing from an average of 36 minutes last year to 54 minutes a day this year.
It was highlighted that the global average use of smartphones across all age groups and generations was 2.4 hours a day.
Although there has been a slight dip in the amount of time young people in the UK spend on their smartphones, this does not mean that their need to stay connected to their friends and acquaintances has also dropped. The report suggests that the need to be connected is still rife.
The vast majority of the younger generation possess a smartphone, with 94% of 16-24 year old having one. Furthermore, one device is not always enough to satisfy their need to stay connected; up to 40% of people in this age category use multiple devices simultaneously when online.
The research from Kantar TNS also found that more than half of the same age group (52%) stated that they could not live without their social media accounts, with 84% of respondents admitting that they use social media platforms on a daily basis. This figure is up from 75% in 2015.
Another study has suggested that teens are admitting that they are spending too much time on social media, and have had to take breaks away from these sites and undergo a ‘digital detox’ because they felt like social media was taking over their lives.
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