Nearly Half of American Adults Are Smartphone Owners

First time accepted submitter saiful76 writes "Nearly half (46%) of American adults are smartphone owners as of February 2012, an increase of 11 percentage points over the 35% of Americans who owned a smartphone last May. Two in five adults (41%) own a cell phone that is not a smartphone, meaning that smartphone owners are now more prevalent within the overall population than owners of more basic mobile phones."

Comments

Rots your brain

[RightwingNutjob]

Other than the "convenience" of being able to get at your email, a crutch for a stunted sense of direction, and a safety net for poor before-hand planning, the only reason I can see for having a smartphone is for keeping yourself entertained on the go. That brings me to: are people's minds so empty that they can't stand just a bit of quiet time without outside stimulation? Somehow we've been doing it for millennia without going completely bonkers, just sayin'.

Re:Rots your brain

[cheaphomemadeacid]

Read history, we DID go completely bonkers, just sayin'.

Re:Rots your brain

[dumuzi]

People had to be more responsible 200 years ago when inattention to the details of your stockpile for winter meant death for your family. Crutches like supermarkets have alleviated that responsibility. The result is freedom.

Re:Rots your brain

[knorthern knight]

> ...the only reason I can see for having a smartphone
> is for keeping yourself entertained on the go.

Yup. You can play Angry Birds while taking a dump in the bathroom. Now *THAT* is "keeping yourself entertained on the go".

Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Taco Cowboy]

When electronic calculators started surfacing back in the 1960's/1970's, students stop memorizing the multiplication tables

Now it's the turn of the smartphone that will affect a whole new generation of people

Used to be that we know the address of a friend of ours

No more

With smartphone/tablets, you don't need to remember anything - by just tapping on the glass panel you will get all the info that you need

The more gadgets we surround ourselves, the dumber we will become

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Rude Turnip]

Albert Einstein refused to memorize telephone numbers because they could be written down. Clearly, he was an idiot.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[dougisfunny]

Their address?
And their phone number?
And their work phone number?
And their cell phone, pager, work cell?
And their work address?
And their email address?
And their work email address?
And their birthday?
Etc etc.

And for how many friends did you know this? And businesses you frequent? Acquaintances?

Instead of memorizing a rolodex, which is subject to change and being forgetten, carrying an easily accessible one with you is dumber?

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[simplexion]

Yes, because being able to look up information at a whim is going to make people more stupid. Is memorising your friends address and phone number really that important to intelligence?
I find these days that someone tells me something that sounds rather dubious, I look it up using my smartphone, find the truth and memorise that. I find that in checking facts when people tell me something, I am more likely to remember it later on.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Calos]

Well, I think your argument is self-negating. Intelligence is not the rote memorization of facts, unless you consider books and computers to be the most intelligent things around.

But aside from that - as usual, I think the truth is somewhere in between your view and the others writing rebuttals.

I have absolutely no problem with conveniently storing data for which it serves no benefit to memorize. And there's far too much data for it to be reasonable to memorize even a small portion of what will be of use to you. That's why we have books and computers... and relevant here, the internet with wireless access. And that can present a trade-off. Before the internet was prevalent, when something broke, I might invest some time figuring out how it works, designing a robust fix, and implementing it. Now, I could save a lot of time by just searching the internet for it - chances are someone has done it before. And the critical thinking and abstractions and everything that would have gone into my solution are lost to the step-by-step directions the internet provides me.

Some will say that technology isn't limiting us in that scenario, because someone still had to figure it out. But that someone wasn't me. Many like me didn't have to. Fewer people will need to, and it's possible society will become more and more dependent on the internet rather than their own abilities. Now, the other side of it is efficiency - time savings. You could argue I could use all the time I save to do something more interesting to me with the same benefits. But I'd hazard a guess that society on the average will use the extra time to stare at a movie or TV show or video game.

Which all assumes, of course, we don't take the more cynical view that most people would just throw their hands up in the air at the problem instead of trying to fix it themselves at all.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Taco Cowboy]

In the past, your friends would draw you a simplified map of the neighboring streets using a device known as a pen on permanent non-volatile memory surface known as paper. The really neat thing was that as long you kept it dry, the information would be retained permanently. If you were really lucky, they might photocopy part of a map and place a photograph of their house. These too were really neat in that they stored street numbers, so you knew what end to travel too.

Sometime they might even leave the front porch light on, place balloons outside the entrance, or place candles along the driveway like landing lights, so you knew you were heading in the right direction.

A smartphone is really that much of a dumb-down

It's the over-reliance of gadgets that are making us more and more lazy

And the most dangerous part is, we are at the verge of being so lazy that we may become too lazy to think, to memorize, to use our own brain

5 or 6 generations ago, the whole world could go on functioning without electricity

3 or 4 generations ago, human beings started relying on electricity

And now, if there is a black-out, you see people started panicking

3 or 4 generation ago, banks could go on functioning without computers

Now? If the "system down" sign is up, there is a sure bet that you won't be able to do almost any transaction in a bank

Human nature, being human nature, we should know when to put a stop before it becomes too late

Over-reliance on the smart phone will only get us into yet another pitfall --- what if the smartphone breaks down? What if the GPS gadgets break down? Are we able to function without them?

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Beardo the Bearded]

Well, I'm an electrical engineer, so my paycheques would stop. On the upside, so would the cheques of the people who would be coming to collect the payments...

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Jeremi]

Human nature, being human nature, we should know when to put a stop before it becomes too late

Since when has knowing when to stop ever been part of human nature? We'll stop when the oil runs out, or when the Y2.038k bug has reduced us all to cannibalism (whichever comes first)... and not a moment before. :^P

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[icebike]

What is this "pager" thing of which you speak? And why do I have to remember it?

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[icebike]

I find these days that someone tells me something that sounds rather dubious, I look it up using my smartphone, find the truth and memorise that. I find that in checking facts when people tell me something, I am more likely to remember it later on.

This!

It Seems to me, having once gone to the effort you remember longer, even if the effort is small. (Someone will look this up and prove me wrong, but that's why I said it "seems".)

Of course the real beauty of this is the instant calling of BS (in the nicest possible way of course) when BS is spewn.
This prevents a lot of cockamamie rumors from ballooning out of control. I've been at a table of 6 when dubious stuff floated and seen 4 smartphones light up. (I've since practiced the phrase "I stand corrected" more frequently).

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[icebraining]

It's the over-reliance of gadgets that are making us more and more lazy

That's just another way of saying effective. Time gained by offloading unimportant tasks to machines is time that can be better spent on more important goals. And yes, "having fun" fits too.

And the most dangerous part is, we are at the verge of being so lazy that we may become too lazy to think, to memorize, to use our own brain

I suppose you're demonstrating that by making big claims without showing the evidence that supports them?

5 or 6 generations ago, the whole world could go on functioning without electricity

3 or 4 generations ago, human beings started relying on electricity

And now, if there is a black-out, you see people started panicking

3 or 4 generation ago, banks could go on functioning without computers

Now? If the "system down" sign is up, there is a sure bet that you won't be able to do almost any transaction in a bank

Human nature, being human nature, we should know when to put a stop before it becomes too late

Over-reliance on the smart phone will only get us into yet another pitfall --- what if the smartphone breaks down? What if the GPS gadgets break down? Are we able to function without them?

So? Worse things have happened and we've pretty much always survived. Occasional blackouts are just a nuisance, nothing more than a drop in a bucket compared to the advantages of these systems, and if shit really hits the fans and the systems go down permanently, our survival instincts will kick-in.

If members from the nobility who were used since birth to have servants to take care of their every need are able to do whatever it takes to eat and survive, I think we can l live without GPS or smartphones. Well, I still do, but it's not because I share your concerns.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Kjella]

Yes, because being able to look up information at a whim is going to make people more stupid.

Well, if you stop gathering and remembering facts because you can look them up you might not be stupid but you're ignorant in the "I couldn't point out Europe on the world map but I could look it up if I needed to" way. Ignorance leads to stupid questions/statements like "Why didn't AMD buy nVidia instead of ATI?" / "AMD should have bought nVidia instead of ATI." because you don't know the fact that nVidia was about twice as large AMD in market cap. There's a saying "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it", how will you learn from the past when you have absolutely no recollection of it?

Of course you could say all of this is poor research, not poor knowledge. That you should have looked it up, not that you should have known. It's like walking around with a lantern, it's illuminated exactly where you are and it'll be dark again once your mind moves on. I prefer it to be more like lighting torches, once I've visited a subject area I should end up knowing something about it. Okay I might not remember every side street or detail and it dims over time but I know the main roads, it's not simply a dark maze I'd have to start over again with my lantern. That I start recognizing patterns, relations, analogies, how these subject areas fit together. Of course I'll never cover the whole maze and know everything about everything, but I'm trying to understand more today than I did yesterday.

I don't understand the people who think the world can be reduced down to simple, single discipline fact-finding missions. Let's for example say that I'm trying to make a team be more productive. How many fields would you like to draw on? I mean it can be individual, what motivates people? Demotivates people? Is it the group dynamics, the working environment? Is it poor communication and collaboration tools? Is is a stupid incentive model? Is the workflow wrong? Maybe you need to know a little psychology, technology, economics, domain knowledge and so on from a wide range of fields. That's pretty hard to do if you're just running around with a lantern, no matter how smart you are. You have to actually have a working knowledge in each field.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Albert Einstein refused to memorize telephone numbers because they could be written down. Clearly, he was an idiot.

Are you suggesting some people actively try to memorize phone numbers? For me, if it's someone I care about, and I dial it a few times, it just sticks.

Did he actively try to not remember them? Like my credit card number from the 80's - I have to agree with Einstein that it's a waste of resources, but it's just stuck in there - nothing I can do about it.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[mikech2000]

The point is that you dont see how bat shit crazy it is to connect the two points. You must be consumed by bigotry to think your original comment was relevant in any way.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[davidwr]

I didn't know Raymond Babbitt was Asian.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[mapkinase]

What is this obsession with "smartness"? With the ability of multiplying two digit numbers in your head? With memorizing ten digits on the fly?

Those skills are just tools, like calculators you mention or abakuses.

I used to call overseas directly 7-8 years ago, when VoIP did not pick up yet, and I used my phonebook. I did not have to memorize a single number, I lost the ability to memorize. It was very hard and took enormous amount of time to memorize numbers when I needed.

After that I switched to phone cards: dial local number, punch in a 10-digit code, punch another 10 digit number. It was impractical to store all of those in one number: not all phones supported that, my workphone addressbook was unmanageable, so I had to regain the ability to memorize those numbers, and I did. It takes me to look on the number I get from RussianSeattle for 5-10 sec, I can start dialing it right away.

Those abilities are not here, because they are not needed. If a human needs something he learns something very quickly.

We did not lose anything. We did not lose anything by stopping learning obligatory Greek and Latin post-Victorian England. We did not lose anything by stopping learning how to multiply with a slider.

Stop obsessing with rudimentary skills. Smartphones do not make us dumb. If anything, they make us even smarter. I learn about stuff faster than before, because I am surrounded with people with a data plan (I am still lingering on my old Samsung pre-data plan smartphone), and instead of forgetting about an atom of knowledge that I wanted to learn I am asking nearby brother in the mosque to check it out in Wikipedia.

I can imagine how much more stuff that I need I could learn by actually subscribing to one of those data plans.

I talked to an older brother from the mosque - he just got himself one of those and now is constantly reading Quran from it. "Why don't you go to the shelf pick a nice Mushaf and read from it?" I asked. "He said, it's too far and I will lose my place in the first row".

The revolution of a data plan is simply amazing and you people are talking about getting dumb?

I consider myself a neo-luddite with my aversion to technology, but _you_ are beating me hands down.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or more likely SHE couldn't tell the difference between 610 Jefferson St and 610 E Jefferson St and forgot to enter the E on her "stupid" GPS. The same mistake would easily have been made on the ancient technology of the map based on the even old faulty tech of the brain.

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[dougisfunny]

I suppose I should also point out as a contrast, those olden days before the whipper snappers got all dumb using smart phones, there were also a lot fewer numbers to remember. The most common scenario was a single number for an entire family, as opposed to a separate number for each member plus one for the house in general.

I suppose having dns instead of remembering all the ip addresses for the websites we visit. Is another example of getting dumber through advances of technology. Or not even remembering the site names, just using google instead.
Heck, the internet in general is us getting dumber. It used to be you had to go to the library and use a card catalog and look things up or memorize an entire encyclopaedia rather than just accessing the information on the internet. Kids these days. Am I right?

Re:Are smartphones making us dumb?

[Taco Cowboy]

Kids these days. Am I right?

No, I ain't gonna fall for this type of blanket statement

We old geeks have had plenty of encounters with the dumb ones in our generation, as well :)

46% eh?

[girlintraining]

The other 54% must have realized that the offerings in this country are so third world they might as well just go with the cheapest, most basic offering because their peers expect them to have a cell phone. The other 46% think they're actually getting a good deal paying $80 or more a month for bandwidth caps, high latency, and cell phones with half their features turned off because America's mobile infrastructure is so crappy it can't handle what would, in the rest of the first world, be considered basic service.

Re:46% eh?

[Darinbob]

Actually I am a bit surprised by the number. These are luxury items after all, and I'd suspect at least 25% of American just can't afford them even if they wanted them. The survey shows 13% of older Americans have the phones which should be the largest group in the demographics (or else my social security is safe after all). Thus numbers just don't feel right. Maybe they're defining "smart phone" in a simple way; ie any mobile phone that has any application at all, which includes what most kids would call dumb phones?

Good god!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's worse than we ever suspected...
My friends, my family.. Every one of them could potentially be a smartphone owner.
I could be a smartphone owner myself and not even know it!

And 10% have no cellphone at all.

[ClioCJS]

Yay, us.

Yeah because you can't buy a normal phone anymore

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything now is a bloated smartphone with poor reception and even poorer battery life

So when will the price come down?

[NixieBunny]

At some point, this market will reach saturation. Then the service providers will have to compete on something like price or service to keep market share up. Hopefully, this will be good for the users of these fine machines.

Re:So when will the price come down?

[ohnocitizen]

Is price keeping people away? As the user of an older non-smart phone I procured to let me text easily (it has a keyboard) while avoiding a smart phone, price is the issue. Not the price of the phone, but the price of the service. Why buy a smart phone when I have to pay an extra $30 a month min for a paltry amount of bandwidth?

Re:So when will the price come down?

[evilviper]

The price came down a couple years ago. You can get an Android slider for $99, and Virgin Mobile unlimited data (they've been threatening to cap it for some time) with about 300 minutes included for $35/month. Boost Mobile is $40-55/month. Other pre-paid services are nearly as cheap.

If you're paying $80/month for your cell phone service, you're probably an idiot, who is a slave to advertising and doesn't know how to shop around.

What's a smartphone anyway?

[Tony Isaac]

I have a phone that has a Web browser, can send and receive e-mail, has a full QWERTY keyboard, and run Java apps. But I'm pretty sure it's considered a "dumb" phone. What exactly is it that makes a phone "smart"? Gestures? Siri? Android or iOS? My dumb phone would have been considered "smart" just 12 years ago, when the first Blackberry was introduced!

Re:What's a smartphone anyway?

[ganjadude]

Actually tony, They call those "feature phones" these days, not a "dumb phone" but not a "smart phone"

Re:What's a smartphone anyway?

[SeaFox]

My dumb phone would have been considered "smart" just 12 years ago, when the first Blackberry was introduced!

Yes, 12 years is hardly any time at all:

* People were still buying 5100-series Nokias powered by Ni-Cd batteries as on-contract phones.
* The end of the Newton MessagePad was still a recent event.
* Everyone was (mistakenly) hyping up for the release of Windows M.E.
* The term "smartphone" didn't even exist.

Re:What's a smartphone anyway?

[saihung]

In 2005, when I bought a Nokia N75, a Symbian S60 phone with a number keypad, AT&T said it was a featurephone. In 2008, when I bought a Nokie E71 that had basically the same OS (and exactly the same capacity for installing applications), AT&T said that I owned a smartphone and cancelled my unlimited featurephone plan. I've been told that AT&T labeled some J2ME phones as "smart" phones, even though by most definitions they aren't because they cannot run native apps. The distinction seems to be arbitrary, and always to the benefit of the carrier over the subscriber.

On the Other Hand

[rueger]

A significant number of those people aren't as smart as their phones...

Re:On the Other Hand

[WiiVault]

that's true even for most dumbphone users.

Re:and the rest of the majority

[amiga3D]

I've noticed the vast majority of smartphone users simply browse facebook all day long. How smart does a phone need to be to do that?

Work?

[DogDude]

Call me crazy, but I use my phone to have constant access to my Exchange Server so I can... get ready... work! I don't understand why people, who don't need to be connected 24/7 get these things. I'd much rather have a cheap-o, simple cell phone than what I have now, but, as it is, I need to be available all of the time to my company. I'm not going to squint to watch videos on it, and I certainly don't need to know what's going on on Facebook all the time, so I really can't explain why most people would get one other than keeping up with the Joneses. I think the situation is comparable to people who drive giant SUV's and trucks to commute to an office job... there's simply no sane reason for taking on the added expense and hassle unless you're obsessed with what other people think about the shit you own.

Re:Smartphones cost $72,381

[c1t1z3nk41n3]

This estimate is retarded for many reasons. But the simplest is that the author fails at basic math. He states a monthly cost of $105 when the options he's listed would only cost $85.

And the other half...

[hcs_$reboot]

...has a Windows phone :-)

Sucking my thumbs..

[RulerOf]

And, for the record, I happen to be an outspoken anti-smartphone guy, likening them to Linus' security blanket. Might as well be suckin' your widdle thumbs, too.

God damn it... I went to answer a call and I just got slobber all over my iPhone again.

Re:Only 10%

[Jeremi]

Of that 46% know how to use their smart phone to it's full potential. Most of them just have them because it is the "in thing" to own.

... and if you think that's shocking, just wait until you hear what percentage of computer owners have yet to write their first computer program. Or what percentage of car owners haven't entered a single road rally.

Smartphone service costs five times as much

[tepples]

There are smartphones for less than $80, no contract or lock.

Dumbphone service on Virgin Mobile USA, a Sprint company: $7 per month for occasional use. Smartphone service on the same carrier: $35 per month minimum. No, they won't let me activate a dumbphone plan on a smartphone, so I have to either carry two devices (a dumbphone for making calls and a smartphone for running applications on Wi-Fi) or pay $28 per month for minutes that I won't use just for the privilege of consolidating the devices

Re:Smartphone service costs five times as much

[Nethead]

Cry me a river. When I was growing up mobile telephones had rotary dials and vacuum tube finals. Calls were about $1.25 a minute ($6 in today's money.) There were 1-3 channels per city and you had to wait your turn. There was no encryption, anyone could listen in. You didn't own your phone, the phone company did, and they installed it in your car.

http://www.wb6nvh.com/MTSfiles/Carphone5.htm

Lawn.

Re:Smartphone service costs five times as much

[Farmer Tim]

Duct tape: the cornerstone of every healthy and smart citizen.

Not if it's over your mouth and you're tied to a chair.

You will be investigated

[Jazari]

For police, smartphones are the DNA or fingerprints of the 21st century. Soon every crime investigation will start with "any DNA on scene?" followed by "Who do the tower logs say was in the area at the time of the crime?"

Re:You missed the point

[narcc]

If he wants to go back to memorizing Rolodexes he can be my guest.

No one memorized their Rolodex. They had a Rolodex for that. They also had this neat thing called an address book for taking that data with them on the go.

Those things had amazing battery life (they never needed charging), the most intuitive UI ever, and a great display that actually looked better in bright sunlight. As a bonus, they could survive countless falls on to concrete from astonishing heights.

If that's not enough, while today's smartphones struggle with decent unicode support, those "obsolete" address books managed even the most obscure con-lang alphabets with ease.

Re:and the rest of the majority

[steveha]

I've noticed the vast majority of smartphone users simply browse facebook all day long. How smart does a phone need to be to do that?

Microsoft tried a social featurephone. It was called the Kin. RIP. It made sense when they first thought of the idea, partly because there was going to be a special data plan for it that would cost less than an unlimited data plan. When a manager at Microsoft decreed that the Kin project needed to use Windows Phone OS, the project was delayed by over a year, and by then Verizon got fed up and scrapped the special less-expensive data plan, and people were getting really excited about iPhones. So the monthly cost of the Kin would be about the same, the cost of the Kin was nearly the same as the cost of an iPhone (assuming the carrier subsidy of course) and instead of "there's an app for that" the rule was "there's no app for that".

So, does it really surprise you that the Kin failed and people chose smartphones instead?

P.S. Consider two classes of cars:

a) can only go a short distance (most electric cars)

b) can either go a short distance or a long distance (most cars)

The second class is outselling the first class, even for people who spend all week only going a short distance. Are you surprised?

steveha

Re:Yeah the other half are smart, phone owners...

[vlm]

I chose to have a house down-payment rather than spending ~$1000/year on a phone...

I believe this is another example of early adopter-itis

True, at one (recent) point if you wanted a iphone you were writing a check for $120 per month for 2 years plus $500 upfront is more like $1500/year. So, I heard the price and "Forget about it, I'm priced out so I don't care anymore". Much like I don't bother following the price of sailboats over 50 feet long, or the new Ferrari market.

I "upgraded" in December from paying about $7/month for a dumb phone to a shocking $20/month for an android phone. So far so good.

Another example of early adopter-itis is when first released a picture window sized TV would have cost more than a (cheap) new car, so I ignore the entire market for years. To my complete amazement last fall when my old SD CRT was failing after 25 years of service, a picture window sized TV only costs about as much as a picture window, so I bought one. The TV shows and movies continue to suck, but now they suck in higher res, and my wife is happy, and it was very cheap.

I intentionally removed myself from the market when first released because the price was insane. Now its cheap and I'm shocked to be in the market. This happens over and over...

Re:Yeah because you can't buy a normal phone anymo

[martas]

Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me...

You see where this is going.

LOL it turns out /. has a "compression filter", where if your comment compresses too much you can't post it, hence I had to decrease the number of repetitions. Maybe if this algorithm was improved to do more semantic compression, comments like "the US is a theocracy", or "1984 wasn't a manual" wouldn't be posted as much... Just a thought.