Are You Addicted to Your Cellphone?

From Departing the Text:

Are you texting/messaging or checking emails all the time? Is it with you all the time?

Some interesting cell-phone statistics:

According to Mobile Mindset Study conducted by security app Lookout:
58% of U.S. smartphone owners check their phones at least every hour - and a large share check their phones while in bed or in the bathroom;
63% of women and 73% of men ages 18-34 say they don't go an hour without checking their phones (Mobile Mindset Study conducted by security app Lookout);
94% of those surveyed were concerned about losing their smartphones, 73% said they'd panic, and 38% are most concerned about the cost and hassle of replacing a lost phone.

Pew Report on Global Social Networking

Social networking has spread around the world with remarkable speed. In countries such as Britain, the United States, Russia, the Czech Republic and Spain, about half of all adults now use Facebook and similar websites. These sites are also popular in many lower-income nations, where, once people have access to the internet, they tend to use it for social networking.

Meanwhile, cell phones have become nearly ubiquitous throughout much of the world, and people are using them in a variety of ways, including texting and taking pictures. Smart phones are also increasingly common – roughly half in Britain, the U.S., and Japan have one. Globally, most smart phone users say they visit social networking sites on their phone, while many get job, consumer, and political information.

More from Pew Research.
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An element of our mission at the Library of Congress is to collect the story of America and to acquire collections that will have research value. So when the Library had the opportunity to acquire an archive from the popular social media service Twitter, we decided this was a collection that should be here.

In April 2010, the Library and Twitter signed an agreement providing the Library the public tweets from the company’s inception through the date of the agreement, an archive of tweets from 2006 through April 2010. Additionally, the Library and Twitter agreed that Twitter would provide all public tweets on an ongoing basis under the same terms.

The Library’s first objectives were to acquire and preserve the 2006-10 archive; to establish a secure, sustainable process for receiving and preserving a daily, ongoing stream of tweets through the present day; and to create a structure for organizing the entire archive by date.

More from the Library of Congress.

Decline in Teens Talking on the Phone

Teens are texting more and talking less on the telephone, according to a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project. Only 14 percent of 12-to-17-year-olds talked to friends daily on a landline phone in 2011, down from 30 percent two years earlier. The percentage who talk to friends daily on a cell phone fell from 38 to 26 percent during those years.

per American Consumers Newsletter

Peak Affluence, Cell Phones and What It Takes to be Middle Class

American Consumers Newsletter

1. Hot Trends: PEAK AFFLUENCE, HOUSING VALUES, SELF-EMPLOYMENT, VOTING, CELL PHONES, AND MORE
2. Q & A: WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE MIDDLE CLASS?
3. Cool Links: HOUSEHOLD INCOME INDEX; DEMOGRAPHIC CHARTBOOK; 2010 CENSUS REPORTS: BLACKS AND WHITES
4. Reference Tools: AMERICAN HOMES, AMERICAN MARKETPLACE, WHO WE ARE: ASIANS, BLACKS, and HISPANICS

WHO, cellphones, cancer

When you hear someone say, "Using your cell phone probably won't give you cancer. The evidence supporting that idea is very weak," they are, more or less, saying the same thing that the World Health Organization is saying. Only the WHO has also added the (very reasonable) assertion that more research is needed if we want to say anything definitive about cell phones and cancer.

More HERE

Generations and their gadgets

Many devices have become popular across generations, with a majority now owning cell phones, laptops and desktop computers. Younger adults are leading the way in increased mobility, preferring laptops to desktops and using their cell phones for a variety of functions, including internet, email, music, games, and video.

Cell phones are by far the most popular device among American adults. Some 85% of adults own cell phones, and 90% of all adults—including 62% of those age 75 and older—live in a household with at least one working cell phone.
Desktop computers are most popular with adults ages 35-65, and Millennials are the only generation that is more likely to own a laptop computer or netbook than a desktop: 70% own a laptop, compared with 57% who own a desktop.
Almost half of all adults own an iPod or other mp3 player, but these are still most popular with Millennials—74% of adults ages 18-34 own an mp3 player, compared with only 56% of the next oldest generation, Gen X (ages 35-46).
Overall, 5% of adults own an e-book reader, and 4% own an iPad or other tablet computer.

More from Pew Internet HERE.

Is your Cellphone Trying To Kill You?

Some studies link cell phone use to health risks
* By Greg Crowe, Government Computer News, Feb 19, 2010

Over the last decade, pretty much everyone got a cell phone. And in that time, every couple of years or so, the debate is raised over whether the little buggers are trying to kill us.

Sure, anyone who dodges swerving SUVs during the morning commute knows how dangerous cell-yakking drivers can be. But what we are talking about here is the electromagnetic radiation that our cell phones emit, and whether it has potential to increase certain health risks. A widely-cited 2008 study links cancers of the parotid gland (one of the salivary glands, located right behind the ear somewhere) to cell-phone use.

Homes With Cell Phones Nearly Double in First Half of Decade

The number of households with cell phones increased from 36 percent to 71 percent between 1998 and 2005, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. This corresponded with a decrease in households with telephone landlines, particularly households headed by young adults.