If You are Young and a Smartphone User Don’t Read This

August 5, 2016 – The latest research indicates that better than 50% of Internet users are addicted to digital devices. Highest addiction rates are in the age 13-24 group.

According to a survey conducted by CivicScience, an organization founded in 2007 focused on advising corporate and public decision makers, 76% within the above age group are “addicted” to computers and smartphones. Self-declared device addiction in groups below the age of 54 exceeded 50%.

With ownership of smartphones almost ubiquitous among young people (84% between ages 12 and 17 own or use a smartphone) and the immediate older demographic, millennials, the numbers of them accessing social networks is astronomical.

In another survey conducted by Coupofy, the online couponing website, 20% of U.S. millennials check their smartphone 10 times per hour and 25% of them do the check every 15 minutes.

None of this should be a surprise. I know when I take the subway or go for a walk the one common observation I can make is the obsession people have with their mobile devices. A typical subway car with 50 people on board will have 40 of them staring at their small screens. And I cannot count the number of times while walking that I have had to avoid running into someone mesmerized with the small screen they carry.

All we need now is for someone to invent a game that further addicts people to these devices. Oh, you say it is already happened. Welcome to Pokemon Go.