Mining PEW- U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015

Smith, A. (2015, April 1). U.S. smartphone use in 2015. PewResearchCenter Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved June 24, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/

The report I read was on the use of smartphones in the U.S. for the year 2015 and the use of Internet via these phones. As I read the report, I learned that two-thirds of Americans out of the ones taking part in this study own a smartphone. I would have thought that that percentage would be higher, since everywhere I turn I see youngsters and other people with a cell phone. I agree that when we say “Internet use” most of us think of laptops, desktops, mouse, and keyboards to access the Internet. I know phones have access to the Internet, but I hadn’t thought about how people may do just rely on a phone’s data service to access the Internet. I learned through this study that 19% of 2,188 smartphone users (who took part in this study) rely on their smartphone for Internet use, therefore I was wrong thinking that people now a days only use their laptops or computers to access the Internet, and that’s not mentioning iPads and iPods, which I had forgotten to mentioned.

I never thought that income or education levels would affect owning a phone. I just thought that with cell phones taking over home phones, I just figured many people do what they need to do to get a cell phone like adjusting their financial needs, but never did I think it would affect owning one, more less education. Sometimes, many of us just go our way and don’t think of these things. I know those issues are present, but I just hadn’t thought about it in this way. I learned that those with relatively low-income or educational levels, youngsters involve, and non-whites are specially the ones more dependent of their smartphones. Again since income is low, they can’t afford other types of broadband services at home or other devices, therefore they rely heavily on their smartphone’s Internet.

The survey asked smartphone owners whether or not they had traditional broadband services at home, and second, whether if they had a reasonable number of options for accessing the Internet in general from any location. According to the study, 10% of Americans owned a smartphone but do not have any other form of high-speed internet access at home beyond their phone’s data plan. I was in “aw” with such a low percentage, I would have thought that people have other means to access the Internet besides their smartphone’s data plan. I wonder if they would survey people around the Valley, what the results would be. I also learned that another 15% of Americans owned a smartphone, but said they have limited number of ways to get online other than their cell phone. I ask myself, do many of these people know that our public libraries offer Internet services? Do they have friends that have Internet services that they could use? But those same questions make think, and ask, do they have a vehicle to go to the public library? So I think there are other issues involved too that have to be considered.

In addition, I learned that 15% of younger adults, ages 18-29 are heavily dependent on their smartphones for online access. I think this could be since they are just starting to live on their own, their financial means may be limited, and therefore, they can’t afford additional broadband access at home. They may just be starting their new careers. Youngsters are mostly on the go, therefore, they always have access to their phones I would think. Their lifestyles may be different than adults, again they may perhaps always carry their smartphones with them and that’s why they may be more dependent on their smartphones for Internet use. Also, about 13% of Americans with an annual income of less than $30,000 a year are smartphone dependent and 1% of people from households earning more than $75,000 per year rely on their smartphones. I believe this could be true since they have a higher income they can pay for additional Internet access at home and can afford to buy other devices like iPads, iPods, laptops, or desktops. They probably also have friends with these means.

I also learned that nearly 48% of smartphone dependent users have had to cancel or shut off their cell phone service for a period of time because the cost of maintaining it was a financial burden. I don’t consider myself low-income, but even I have changed plans to save money because broadband access services are expensive. I can afford to have Internet access at home, but I still look for a good deal to avoid being in a position where my services would need to be cut-off. I have satellite Internet service and it’s extremely expensive, but I have to have it otherwise I wouldn’t be able to access my online classes. Although sometimes I do access my classes via my smartphone, but a laptop is always better than a phone, the screen is bigger on a laptop. Therefore, I totally understand these people and their needs to sometimes having to shut-off or discontinue their Internet services.

According to this study, the smartphone has several uses. It specified that lower-income people use their Internet on their phone mainly for job hunting or submitting employment applications compared to higher-income users. I agree to an extent, I believe all users whether low-income or high income rely on the Internet on their smartphones for job hunting, get info on a health question, do on-line banking, look up real estate listings, look up government services, take a class or use it to look up educational content, or even submit a job application. Everyone at one point or another have used the Internet on their phones for such purposes, not just low-income people. I’ve used it for all of those purposes too. Young adults become part of this list, as they have also access their smartphones to use the Internet for these purposes as well. The study says that 85% of young adults who are dependent of their cell phones are also incorporating their mobile devices into information seeking and transactional behaviors, therefore I was right on my previous thought. I’m not surprise with this high percentage of youngsters accessing their phones for so many different transactions since accessing the Internet via their smartphones is quicker and can be done from any place, unless there’s no reception.

I’ve also learned that many smartphone users rely on their phones to access and follow along any breaking news and to share and be aware of what’s going on with their communities. I think this is an excellent way to use the Internet in our smartphones since it is important to keep up with what’s going on around us. We all need to be safe and be aware of any wrong doings near where we live, so keeping up with the news is a must. 68% of people part of this study use their Internet to follow any breaking news, which goes with the thoughts I just mentioned. Almost half of these people do it very frequently. 67% use their phone to share pictures, videos, or to comment on events occurring in their community. I honestly would think this percentage would be higher since I assumed mostly everyone does that with their phone. I then read that 67% of smartphone owners use it occasionally for hand in hand directions. I still think this is a high percentage of people although they say “occasionally.” I would have thought that now a day most cars have navigation systems.

The highest percent came to “texting,” especially among younger smartphone owners. 93% of smartphone owners ages 18-29 used voice calling or video calling too. But the feature highest used was emailing which requires Internet on their phones, 88% of smartphone owners used email at least once over the period of the study. This made email more widely-used smartphone feature than social networking, watching video, or using maps and navigation. I’m not surprised, I must say, that is one of the best features of accessing Internet through our smartphones, our email accounts, especially if we are always on the go.

Overall, I learned that youngsters use smartphones to avoid boredom, or to ignore other people. Sounds like my teenagers. I also learned that it is young people, non-whites, lower income people who are especially dependent on smartphones for online access and that it is young adults that most likely use their phone for navigation purposes either by car, public transit, or by taxi. Also, using the phone for news and community information is one thing everyone does and according to this study, it was popular across all ages. In addition to that, almost half of phone users have used their phone in an emergency. Despite clear benefits, 54% of people dependent on their smartphones thought it was not always needed and 46% said they couldn’t live without it. If you ask me: I believe I can live without my phone, but my reality is another one, unfortunately I’m a heart patient due to a heart problem I’ve had since I was 10 years old, therefore I must say, “I have to have my smartphone with me at all times.” It can literally save my life one day. Although sometimes I forget to carry it with me, but I shouldn’t.

60 pages (Report) (73 pages read out of 150)