We walk, talk and sleep with our phones. But are we more — or less-connected? Just as remarkable as the power of mobility, over everything from love to global development, is how fast it all happened. It is hard to think of any tool, any instrument, any object in history with which so many developed so close a relationship so quickly as we have with our phones. Not the knife or match, the pen or page. Only money comes close—always at hand, don't leave home without it. But most of us don't take a wallet to bed with us. don't reach for it and check it every few minutes, and however useful money is in pursuit of fame, romance, revolution, it is inert compared with a smart phone — which can replace your wallet now anyway.
So how do we feel about this? To better understand attitudes about mass mobility, Time, in cooperation with Qualcomm, started the Time Mobility Poll, a survey of close to 5,000 people of all age groups and income levels in eight countries. Even the best survey can be only a snapshot in time, but this is revealing a lot about both where we are now and where the mobile wave is taking us next.
Not for a day — in most cases not even for an hour. In Time's Poll, 1 in 4 people check it every 30 minutes, 1 in 5 every 10 minutes. A third of respondents admitted that being without their mobile for even short periods leaves them feeling anxious. It is a form of sustenance, that constant feed of news and notes and nonsense, to be the point that twice as many people would pick their phones over their lunch if forced to choose. Three-quarters of 25-to 29-year-olds sleep with their phones.
Americans are grateful for the connection and convenience their phones provide, helping them search for a lower price, navigate a strange city, expand a customer base or track their health and finances, their family and friends. But in some ways Americans are still ambivalent (矛盾的); more than 9 in 10 Brazilians and Indians agreed that being constantly connected is mostly a good thing. America's 76% was actually the lowest score.
