More than one-quarter of adults constantly online
Social media, text messages, gaming, weather reports, email and much more are daily parts of busy lives. But just how connected are we really to the online world?
The widespread use of smartphones and mobile devices has helped drive the sense of being online all the time, a result that is up from 21% in a similar 2015 poll.
While not everyone feels constantly connected, about 77% of Americans still go online daily. 43% go online several times a day, and about 8% go online only about once a day. Meanwhile, 11% connect several times weekly, and a similar percentage does not use the internet at all.
The biggest indicator of the time spent online is access to a mobile device. Of those who possess a smartphone or similar device, 89% go online daily and 31% report almost constant use.
Meanwhile, of the people who do not have a mobile device, only 54% report daily online usage and only 5% are constantly connected.
But when the poll added age into the mix, the results grew more interesting. Age matters less than it did three years earlier. Americans between the ages of 30 and 49 indicated the same rate of almost constant online use as younger adults:
36% to 39% for the younger generation. Meanwhile, the percentage of those between the ages of 50 and 64 who report constant online use has spiked from 12% to 17% since 2015.
Households with higher incomes and those who live in urban and suburban areas report almost constant online usage at a rate that is nearly double that of residents of rural areas, where only 15% report the highest usage.
As online tools become more useful and services better connect friends and families, the importance of access to fast, affordable internet connections continues to increase.