President Donald Trump is like average Americans in an important way: His smart phone is constantly by his side.
A national survey released Thursday shows that Americans keep their smart phones at hand throughout the day, including in their bedrooms at night.
Barely a decade after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at a convention in San Francisco, smart phones have become our constant companions, probably closer to us than our pets and our spouses.
The survey by ReportLinker shows that 46 percent of Americans check their smart phones as soon as they wake up – while they are still physically in bed. The number soars for people aged 18 to 24 years old to 66 percent, the survey found.
ReportLinker surveyed 536 people representative of the general U.S. population in mid-January, the data analysis company based in Lyon, France, said.
More than half of Americans, 53 percent, check their smart phones before going to bed and 10 percent admit to waking up at night to check their phones, the survey found.
About a third of smart phone owners use social media apps the most, while 18 percent said they check their email the most, it found.
“By the end of the day, you might think smartphone users would be ready to disconnect and put them away, but there’s evidence they’re smitten with the device,” ReportLinker found.
“Three-quarters of all US respondents to ReportLinker’s survey say they keep their smartphones active all day and night, and a staggering 83% of Millennials say they do.”
Some 75 percent never power off their smart phones, it found.
Tim Johnson: 202-383-6028, @timjohnson4