The Mobile Difference and Tech Addiction

More people are using the mobile internet in the United States than before — 39% of the adult population are connecting to the internet through their mobile phones, according to The Mobile Difference, a recent report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The report broke these users down into five groups: Digital Collaborators, Ambivalent Networkers, Media Movers, Roving Nodes, and Mobile Newbies.

With greater utility coming from phones, and more reasons to use them for longer, I worry a bit that the BlackBerry addiction we’ve seen in business users could extend more broadly. The Digital Collaborators (who are the most connected and have the most gadgets) and Roving Nodes (who consume a lot of digital content and share it with friends) are the groups I believe to be most at risk for developing addictive behaviours. And while workplaces can offer training for proper use of technology, it might be more difficult for individuals to know when to stop.

On the other hand, it was interesting to see one group, the Ambivalent Networkers (who were mostly 20-somethings and 60 percent male), shy away from the ‘always-on’ connectivity that mobile phones provide. 31 percent of Ambivalent Networkers strongly agreed that they liked being very accessible (compared to an average of 47 percent for the other groups), and over half of Ambivalent Networkers agreed that taking a break from technology is a good idea. If many users become jaded about technology, addiction might become less of a worry.