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SMARTPHONE USERS SPEND a third of their day using their mobiles, a study has revealed.
The survey by Nottingham Trent University found that 23 participants within the 18-33 age bracket checked their phones about once every 10 minutes – up to 85 times a day.
Scientists placed an app on test subjects’ phones in order to track how often participants checked their screens, used an app, listened to music or checked the time.
The study also revealed people accessed their phones twice as often as they thought.
It also found mobile use was typically confined to short bursts, with more than half of sessions lasting less than 30 seconds.
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Speaking about the findings on RTE Radio 1′s Dave Fanning Show, Dr Sally Andrews said:
“We put an app on peoples phones which measure how often they used their phones.
“As a result we managed to get an objective measure of people’s smartphone use but we also asked them to give their own measurement.
We found that their own perceived usage was often a lot lower than their usage in reality.
“People also checked their phones more in afternoon and evening than they did at in the morning or at night time.”
Users spent one third of their day on their phones assuming that they slept for eight hours.
Currently 56% of the population carry smartphones and this is predicted to rise to 69% of the population by 2018, according to figures by Millennial Media research.
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