(NewsNation) — Mobile phone reliance in the United States is nothing new, but four in 10 Americans admit they are surfing the Internet or online almost constantly, according to polling released recently by Pew Research.
Nine in 10 adults acknowledge they are online every day — either on their phones or on a computer, data shows. The number of people (43%) who say they are interacting with online sites several times a day is slightly higher than those (41%) who say that they are in constant contact with the digital world.
Not surprisingly, the percentage of Internet-heavy residents jumps significantly to 62% among 18-to-29-year-olds compared to older Americans over the age of 65, only 15% of whom say they are engaged online, the Pew data shows.
Only 5% of adults say they only log onto Internet sites once a day, while 5% claim they don’t have an online presence.
The research, which was conducted between May 19 and Sept. 5, 2023, shows 90% of Americans own a smartphone while 95% use the internet.
Only 15% of adults consider themselves “smartphone-dependent”, which means that they own a smartphone but do not have high-speed home broadband service. That demographic has remained fairly stable in recent years, data indicated, but has doubled since 2013 when only 8% of adults fell into that category.
The biggest group of adults who rely on their phones for their online services (28%) live in households where the median income is less than $30,000 per year. That compares to 19% whose household income is between $30,000 and $69,999, Pew reported.
Also, roughly a quarter of that demographic (24%) have only completed high school or dropped out of school before graduating. Only 6% of adults who have college degrees rely on their phones without having at-home Internet service.
Adults with higher levels of education are household incomes are also more likely to say that they are online constantly, Pew reported. Just more than half of adults (52%) with a household income of more than $100,000 per year say they are online consistently. Nearly half of those (48%) who fall into being constantly online live in urban settings, compared to suburban areas (42%) and rural areas (32%), search shows.
