40% of mobile phone users admit conversation is dying, a study has found. Research into mobile phone usage by Vodafone found that even if cost was not a factor, nearly half of mobile owners STILL wouldn’t speak more on the phone.
In fact, the average mobile phone user has around 70 contacts on their phone but will only talk to 11 on a regular basis, leaving over 80% to languish at the back of the phonebook.
This means that the average user only musters up a meager 11 minutes of call time each day.
A surprising 85% of us have numbers in our phone we’ve never even called.
The report, which looked at mobile phone usage among 2000 adults, found that although we talk less than ever our mobiles will still take priority- a surprising third claimed they would answer a call during sex and another 55% said they would pick up during a meal.
Srini Gopalan, Consumer Director at Vodafone UK, which conducted the survey to mark the launch of Vodafone Red commented:
”It seems as a nation we’re desperate not to miss out on the latest gossip no matter what we’re up to.
“But this doesn’t mean you have to take a call even when you’re responding to the call of nature, having a romantic dinner or in bed.
“Now Brits have unlimited calls, they don’t need to interrupt quality time with their partner to answer their phone as there’s no need to worry about the cost of returning a missed call.
“Even cutting a chat short when you do call back for fear of running out of inclusive minutes is now a thing of the past.”
The survey also found that 28% of people are making fewer calls and talking less on their mobiles.
When asked why conversation standards are slipping, 20% of respondents blamed social media, with a similar amount pointing to the fact that people don’t know how to listen anymore.
In fact, only 26% wish they received more calls than they do now- a quarter are actually irritated whenever a new number pops on an incoming call, while the same amount feel inconvenienced.
Srini Gopalan from Vodafone continued:
”It’s time to revive the art of conversation. People still want to talk but they want to do that without worrying about the cost.
“We’ve seen from our research that the younger generation in particular would call more people more often and would talk for longer if cost wasn’t a factor.
“There are clearly plenty of people in everyone’s address book that we don’t catch up with often enough.”
The comprehensive study into modern phone also revealed that although use is slipping, mobiles do still play an important role in our lives- 90% of people said they had received a very important call on their mobile.
Over a quarter said they had been given a job offer, nearly 15% said they had been told about the birth of a child and a surprising 1% even said they had been proposed to via their mobile phone.
Family ties are also important- 23% of women speak to their mom more than anyone else (compared to only 16% of boys). However, when mums do get their sons on the phone, they can’t escape- 24% of men speak to their mom for longer than anyone else compared to just 16% of women.