Pew study: 42% of users depend on mobile services to fight off boredom

Mobile devices have emerged as such a critical component of users' everyday lives that their absence can trigger problems, according to a new nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. In the 30 days leading up to the Pew study, 51 percent of respondents used their phone to quickly retrieve information, and 27 percent said they experienced a situation made troublesome because their mobile device was not at hand. In addition, 40 percent of respondents said they found themselves in emergency situations where mobile access proved helpful.

Subscribers also depend on their phones to ward off boredom, with 42 percent of respondents relying on mobile services to deliver entertainment in quiet moments. Another 13 percent confessed they've pretended to use their phone in order to avoid interacting with others around them. However, 29 percent of users admitted to turning off their phone for a period of time simply to get a break from using it.

Despite users' reliance on mobile solutions, frustrations remain, Pew found. Twenty percent of respondents complained that their phone can take too long to download content, 16 percent had difficulty reading text because the screen was too small and 10 percent suffered challenges while entering a chunk of text into their phone.

For more:
- read the Pew Internet report

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