Roughly 58% of American adults consider themselves addicted to their phone, and that figure rises to 76% among Millennials (18-34), finds Invoca in a recently-released study.
The report shows that amid the numerous activities being performed on phones, calls remain popular – and frequent text messaging remains the most frequent activity performed on a mobile phone by Millennials, with two-thirds using their phone to send messages more than 5 times a day.
The second-most frequent activity is making calls, which 37% of Millennials do more than 5 times a day. After that, one-third update social media with that frequency, while slightly more than one-quarter watch videos (27%), take pictures (27%) and send emails (26%) more than 5 times a day using their phone.
Interestingly, Millennials are more likely than their older counterparts (45+) to make calls with that regularity, as fewer than one-third (29%) of respondents aged 45 and older said they make calls using their mobile phone more than 5 times a day
Overall, respondents to the Invoca survey identified calling as the single most valuable function of their phone, ahead of messaging, social media, email and video.
This has some implications for businesses; in comparing mobile purchases to calls to businesses, the study notes that “sometimes a call is just easier than a click.”
In fact, 59% of respondents report calling businesses at least a few times a month, and 42% call a business at least once a week. Additionally, respondents are more than twice as likely to have called a business in the past month (65%) than to have used their phone to fill out a form (24%), and Millennials are three times more likely to call a business (66%) than to use social media to contact one (22%).