A new survey from Pew Internet said that more than one third of adults rock a smartphone and that these devices can be life savers when you’re bored or to help you avoid talking to people. Not surprisingly, the survey also found that more than half of the respondents used their cell phone to look up information and about 40 percent of users have had to use that mobile device in an emergency.
A cell phone or smartphone can be the perfect way to kill boredom and 42 percent of users said they’ve used their phone for that. I’m definitely on that boat, as I’m probably on my phone way too much when I’m in line or on public transportation. I do believe that this boredom-killing market is going to be huge for mobile gaming and that’s why Electronic Arts is spending tons of cash to buy mobile game developers.
As for the socially-awkward set, 13 percent have said that they’ve pretended to be on the phone in order to not have to talk to people. I’m proud to say that I haven’t done this one yet but I totally get the motive and I’m actually kind of shocked that the percentage is so low. Any of you use this tactic?
With all these abilities come some frustration, as the Pew survey found that people get upset with how long information can take to download, the screen was too small or that it was too difficult to enter text. These are all solvable problems with 4G LTE, big-screen smartphones and full physical or software keyboards.