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Social Media Plays A Major Role In Smartphone Attachment Among Millennials
Social Media Is The Main Driver of Smartphone Attachment Among Millennials
When asked whether social media was the main driver of their attachment to their smartphones, a very strong majority of respondents--75.4%--said that it was.
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Millennials’ strong attachment to social media results in their spending a considerable amount of time using it. Respondents self-reported the amount of time they estimate they spend using social media each day, and the median time was 2 ½ hours. Additionally, over 25.4% spend at least 5 or more hours per day browsing and using social media.
Social Media Distracts Millennials From the Task At Hand
Millennials are so psychologically attached to social media that they often can’t focus on important things simply because they are thinking about it. Almost ⅓ (29.2%) report they find themselves unable to focus on other tasks one or more times per hour because they simply are thinking about social media.
Strongly Disagree: 3.2%
Disagree: 4.9%
Neutral 16.5%
Agree 43% 32.4%
Strongly Agree
Percentage of Respondents
100
0 1.2% 11.9 19.3 19.4% 14.9%
25.4%
8%
0 <1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5
Hours on Social Media
5+
Constantly 7.6% Every 5 minutes 3.0% Every 10 minutes 2.7% Every 15 minutes 4.3% Every 30 minutes 6.3% Every hour 5.3% Every few hours 12.9% Every day 7.4% < Every day 21.2% Never 29.3%
⅓ are unable to focus!
4
A common feature of social media platforms is a public forum in which people post comments, photos, and videos. This public forum creates a digital milieu that can become a source of stress as people spend a considerable amount of time mulling over the impact their posts and comments are having on others. They can become preoccupied with whether they are escalating in social status, finding social approval, and how their image measures up to others. They’re concerned with the image they are projecting. The safety of being online--i.e. behind a screen with no physical confrontation--may also cause people to objectify others and say things they otherwise wouldn’t say.
Millennials Experience Both Positive and Negative Emotions When Using Social Media
Millennials experience both positive and negative emotions as a result of using social media. We wondered whether the balance of these emotions skews positively or negatively. To determine this we had respondents rate the magnitude of both positive and negative emotions they experience while using social media on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being the highest in magnitude.
As the graphic below illustrates, the median magnitude of positive emotions was 54, and the median magnitude of negative emotions was 42.
While the balance of emotions skewed positively, the gap between positive and negative was not substantial--social media still generates a substantial amount of negative emotion.
