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About a Quarter of US Adults Say They Are 'Almost Constantly' Online (pewresearch.org)
As smartphones and other mobile devices have become more widespread, 26 percent of American adults now report that they go online "almost constantly," up from 21 percent in 2015, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in January 2018. From the study: Overall, 77 percent of Americans go online on a daily basis. That figure includes the 26 percent who go online almost constantly, as well as 43 percent who say they go online several times a day and 8 percent who go online about once a day. Some 11 percent go online several times a week or less often, while 11 percent of adults say they do not use the internet at all.
If my internet goes out for more than 3 minutes, my wife starts shooting at things.
What is this "Go online?" Is it clicking the dial button on your dial-up connection? Is it web? Is it email? Spotify? Netflix?
Isn't that bit obvious? Most adults in the US and even most teens have smart phones and even if they don't realize it their smartphone is constantly online for everything from their visual voicemail to their questions for siri to call a contact.
the mark is coming.
I am, only because I have to. I have to look at my phone all the time in order to answer emails that have to do with running my company. I'm super busy, all the time. I don't Face/Tweet/Chat/Gram. I'm dealing with problems and not fun stuff.
I'm always surprised when I see other people on their phones as much as me. I can't imagine being on a phone when not absolutely needing to be. Most people have serious gadget addictions.
I don't respond to AC's.
Faith based considerations about technology?
Poverty?
Paper insulated wireline is not able to support a connection?
Not able to use the net for a reason related to the user?
Do they work for the security services?
Work for the security services, as a contractor and they know their connection will be collected by the USA mil/gov on due to their security clearance?
Know another nation is going to spy on them and have been told not to connect at home for security reasons at home in the USA?
Are they city police and know that internal affairs is working with the FBI to collect on all city and state police?
Federal law enforcement is collecting all US state police and court workers?
Work for the city, state government and have seen the results of state and city "collect it all" efforts?
Voice prints in all inner city areas are collected by state and city police? 11 percent know not to be online.
Faith based cults with no loyalty to the USA that know not to be online after getting warnings from their members deep in the US telco and court system?
The CIA has a set number of US users who never had a social media account and make good spies with totally fictional backgrounds?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I posted this offline.
And there have not been many times where I have not checked email, news, texts. Sadly. I'm 50 this year, and to be honest, the way IT is going to managed services (cloud) for most things, old sysadmins like me are a dying breed. There are precious few pure IT companies within a distance I'd be willing to drive. And even my current employer is rapidly moving as much to the "cloud" as they can manage, and quickly.
I see non-IT people constantly on their smartphones. What's truly funny is seeing people going into the toilet with their mobile device looking at the screen, and they emerge however long later in the same poise. People are literally glued to their screens anymore. It's really a major distraction. I'm to the point that if I'm talking to someone and they should be talking with me, and they go into mobile mode without a real reason, I walk away. I really want a job where a computer is simply a tool to do something else. IT anymore has become just disaster management. I'm tired of writing PowerShell scripts to automate this and that. I'm tired of being on call and having an electronic leash. My wife and I both agree, we will not willingly buy smart appliances, have an always-listening device (other than mobile device), or smart car packages. I'm seriously looking at buying a car from Japanese Classics for two reasons: 1. I prefer older Japanese cars. 2. They don't have all the whiz-bang garbage in them.
Frankly, I'm tired of my world always being "on". Methinks this may be my last year in IT. I'm pointing my children away from STEM other than a passing familiarity with the tools. They'll be better off in another field that is not so volatile and self-serving.
A non-smart phone is also constantly online when it's switched on. So is a landline phone. So, if you're within earshot of a phone, you're "online"?
Possibly what this stupid survey was really asking about was being in front of a screen. If you're playing a game on a tablet, for example, it doesn't make any practical difference whether that game needs or is using an Internet connection.
What does "online" mean? My computer is ONLINE 24x7, but that doesnt mean I am using it, My phone is online 24x7 but that doesnt mean I have it on my person. MY TV is only 24x7 but that doesnt mean I am watching it.
If so, shut the fuck up. You could have flipped burgers at any time, but you didn't. I don't want to hear it.
Uh no. "online" means "the Internet" to human beings.
LED
Let me tell you something -- some of the ladies who are online pretty much 100% of the time and are constantly screaming about evil white males and how 100% of the planet's problems are directly caused by them are just as bad as the men and absolutely SHOULD be at the top of the crazy list. Everyone has seen a few of these folks -- seriously, they're plain nuts, and the Internet (especially social media) has given them a platform to vent this rabid kookiness and contributes to their instability. It's seriously unhealthy.
Isn't that bit obvious? Most adults in the US and even most teens have smart phones and even if they don't realize it their smartphone is constantly online for everything from their visual voicemail to their questions for siri to call a contact.
Exactly. And this question will likely be irrelevant within the next decade. Airplane mode will become unnecessary as WiFi fills the friendly skies, and you'll truly have to find the middle of nowhere to remove yourself from the ability to get online.
You read Slashdot and don't know what "online" means?
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
I have been online since I got my own snail mailbox.
"Constantly" meant once every business day (at some moment that started to include Saturdays) I got updates I wanted: bills and newspapers, and unwanted: spam mail.
Nothing changed since then, email, text or weather app, all behaves the same way,
Only the definition of constancy changed.
Another thing that changed was variety of what is it that we are updating ourselves to, variety of utilities, variety of services, variety of news sources.
It does not make sense to ask how many people online, it make sense to ask: online to what? Where does this "line" on which we are "on" is leading to?
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
It's more like 3 quarters, since most of the people report their location to Google, Facebook et al 24/7.
A friend and I took a trip to Las Vegas. When we got into the hotel room, she immediately jumped on to the Wifi with her iPad, found it too slow and switched to celluar. That effectively locked me out of using Wifi unless I paid an extra $15. My iPad at the time didn't have celluar. So I spent an entire week of my vacation without Internet. I didn't get back online until I get to the airport and spent a couple of hours catching up while waiting for my flight.
I sleep some every night. I turned my phone off when I went to a funeral last week. And there was that power outage a couple months ago.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I have been online since I got my own snail mailbox. "Constantly" meant once every business day (at some moment that started to include Saturdays) I got updates I wanted: bills and newspapers, and unwanted: spam mail.
Whoa, buddy - two problems I see.. :
1) You put bills in the "wanted" category, and
2) You shouldn't be getting newspapers in your mailbox unless they are delivered by USPS.
Those who can't...teach. Those who can't teach...write code
...admit to being almost constantly online. Three quarters of the remaining Americans are lying!
(Yes, that's 3/4 of 3/4, which still leaves a remainder...)