One third of cellphone users never make calls

27 September 2016 - 09:06 By ©The Daily Telegraph

The cellphone call is headed for extinction, research suggests. Almost one in three respondents in a major survey claimed that he had not made any standard voice calls on his handset in the past week, suggesting a dramatic shift in the way members of "generation smartphone" communicate.In 2012, 4% of Britons said they had not used their cellphone to make a call. By last year, a quarter said they were not making calls, and this year the figure was 31%.Smartphone addiction is on the rise, however, with e-mail, video calls and social network usage surging.Deloitte, the business advisory firm, estimates that more than 15million people are disrupting their sleep pattern by checking for messages in the middle of the night - and often replying.The sixth annual Mobile Consumer Survey, which examined the cellphone-usage habits of more than 4000 people, shows addiction is rising.More than 80% of users said they had a smartphone and one in 10 of them instinctively reached for his phone as soon as he woke up. A third reached for their phone within five minutes of waking, and more than half within a quarter of an hour - most of them to check for SMSes and e-mails.In 2014, 48% used e-mail. This year that figure is 71%.The research also reveals that smartphone usage is increasingly affecting social behaviour, with a third of 18-to-24-year-olds using their device "always" or "very often" when meeting friends, shopping or watching television. ..

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