‘Smartphone users pick up their phones 100 times per day’. (e-Marketer, 2014)

At first I laughed at this statistic, surely even in todays tech obsessed culture, there is no way a person would be that attached to their phone.

I marked these findings as interesting and quickly moved on to other things.

Ten minutes later I received an email notification…

I replied and a conversation begun. Before I knew it I had picked up the phone TEN TIMES in half an hour – and that was just email!

The Challenge

Yesterday I decided to put this theory into practise. I would simply mark down each time I looked at my phone.

7AM – Alarm clock – FIRST push of the day. (And the first screen I looked at the moment I woke up)

10AM – I was still on a fairly low score of TWELVE, the major uses being email, and music streaming usage.

12AM – A fair jump here to TWENTY THREE uses. Work was in full swing, I was sending and receiving emails, texts and phone calls, constantly checking the time.

2PM – Carrying on with work related uses – I found myself on FORTY ONE uses – the major source being emails and text messages (both work and social related).

It’s also worth noting, that I used my phone throughout the entirety of my lunch break.

5PM – FIFTY SEVEN uses.  Now that work was out of the way, it was time to use Apps. Checking the times for public transport, looking at the whether, traffic reports etc.

7PM – Social hours! Now I admit, I’m by no means the most sociable person, especially compared to some people out there, but even this I found staggering. Once home, my phone usage jumped to SEVENTY THREE times!! – How??

The journey home (video streaming, texts, music – they all add up), further works emails, notifications regarding TV programmes; I also used the maps app to plot a route to my friend’s new address – standby mode can be bastard when driving!

10PM – After a few hours of video games and multi-screen related app use (an interesting topic for another time), sharing funny videos and photos, listening to music on the way home, and finally setting my phone on charge again, I decided to call it a day.

The Result

NINETY-ONE phone uses. Not quite a hundred, but damn close!

I’ll be honest I did not expect to even get close to these numbers. I thought at most, fifty or sixty times.

The three biggies I found were, emails, music and checking the time (this accounted for most of the uses throughout the day) which is interesting since I wear a watch…

This challenge was actually much harder then I thought. Most of the time I wasn’t even aware I was doing it because it had become so embedded in my routine.

So What About Other People?

Interestingly it seems “Fear of missing something” was one of the top trends reshaping how consumers used their smartphones—and more importantly, their lock/home screens” (e-marketer, 2014).

Here is a quick overview of the leading types of push notifications used by US smartphone user, according to Mobile Posse and Phoenix Marketing International Marketing (2014)

• Missed Call – 92%
• Text – 88%
• Email – 81%
• Updates for Apps – 67%
• Social 65%

So…

Now it’s your turn. Give it a go, see where your mobile habits take you, try and keep a pad and paper handy and jot down every time you pick up your phone. The results may shock you!

Coming to you from my phone… (Number Thirty-Six today)

What number are you on?