The Love-Hate Relationship With Our Cell Phones

The Pew Internet & American Life Project published an interesting report this week taking a look at how we interact with our cell phones. As we’ve written before, this information is particularly pertinent to Latinos, who tend to access the Internet more from mobile devices.

The report basically found that cell phones are used in several ways by Americans, for everything from boredom to ignoring other people to emergencies. Here’s the gist of the report:

  • Cell phones are useful for quick information retrieval (so much so that their absence can cause problems) – Half of all adult cell owners (51%) had used their phone at least once to get information they needed right away. One quarter (27%) said that they experienced a situation in the previous month in which they had trouble doing something because they did not have their phone at hand.
  • Cell phones are an important tool in emergency situations – 40% of cell owners said they found themselves in an emergency situation in which having their phone with them helped.
  • Cell phones can help stave off boredom – 42% of cell owners used their phone for entertainment when they were bored.
  • Despite their advantages, some cell phone owners just need an occasional break – 29% of cell owners turned their phone off for a period of time just to get a break from using it.
  • With advantages comes frustration – 20% of cell owners experienced frustration because their phone was taking too long to download something; 16% had difficulty reading something on their phone because the screen was too small; and 10% had difficulty entering a lot of text on their phone.
  • Cell phones can help prevent unwanted personal interactions – 13% of cell owners pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting with the people around them.

I know I’m guilty of at least some of these — quite frankly — I feel like my world is collapsing when I don’t have my cell phone. My life is so connected to that phone in so many ways, everything from my calendar to my email to directions to talking to my loved ones, that I cannot imagine life without it. Does this report describe you at all?

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD.

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