
Use of internet, social media, digital devices plateaus in US - prostoalex
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/28/internet-social-media-use-and-device-ownership-in-u-s-have-plateaued-after-years-of-growth/
======
kozikow
I stopped using Facebook and Twitter. Same as majority of people who did the
same, I report being happier and more productive.

~~~
mdorazio
Did you also stop using all Facebook products (Instagram and WhatsApp)? Many
of the people I know who are proud of quitting Facebook are happily snapping
pictures daily for Instagram or chatting regularly on WhatsApp.

~~~
kozikow
I deleted messenger, Instagram and app, but not WhatsApp. Sadly it's not
replaceable yet :(.

~~~
Rjevski
Why not replaceable? iMessage seems like a perfect replacement.

Edit: for Android devices, Signal is just as easy to use as WhatsApp.

~~~
CurrentB
Only if 100% of your contacts use iPhones.

------
liftbigweights
That's what happens to any product or technology eventually. It's market
saturation. Whether it was the TV or walkman or nintendo of the past, or the
internet, social media and smartphones today, they all plateau. And then the
new tech comes along and then that grows exponentially until it plateaus.
Rinse, repeat.

------
pweissbrod
Explosive user growth in "free" SAAS and social media starts to taper towards
a limit.

Public companies, pressured to maintain that revenue trajectory, compensate
reduced growth by squeezing more value from existing users.

This tends to lead towards more obtrusive advertisement, aggressive data
collection which, if not carefully implemented, leads to negative publicity
and attrition.

The struggle in 2018+ is to find what we collectively considers "acceptable
privacy", or in other words where is that line between what valuable personal
information folks will offer up and what's considered generally creepy.

------
atlasunshrugged
"The shares of U.S. adults who say they use the internet, use social media,
own a smartphone or own a tablet computer are all nearly identical to the
shares who said so in 2016. The share who say they have broadband internet
service at home currently stands at 65% – nearly identical to the 67% who said
this in a survey conducted in summer 2015. And when it comes to desktop or
laptop ownership, there has actually been a small dip in the overall numbers
over the last two years – from 78% in 2016 to 73% today."

~~~
Jaruzel
It's like mobile phones - everyone who wants one (in the US) has one. You
can't keep expecting a rise in usage numbers on anything, as eventually you'll
hit maximum usage which is very rarely 100%.

~~~
Retric
Broadband internet is still not available to large chunks of the population.
It’s really three groups those who can’t afford it, thouse who don’t want it,
and those who can’t get it.

~~~
yoz-y
I’d say that most people nowadays do not really need broadband if they have a
good enough cell phone plan.

~~~
ghaff
Lots of people don’t have great cell phone coverage where they live. I’m
within 50 miles of a major US city and I have a spotty cell signal. Also data
limits/throttling.

------
xte
It's hard to blind-trust certain statistics for a simple reason, many use
mobile internet when on train/bus, waiting something in line out of their
homes etc, however they really use internet at home/work from a PC. In terms
of time many may spend more time on a mobile devices not because it's their
primary platform but because of today inefficient/poorly organized life etc.

Such scenario is hard to track statistically.

------
kashyapc
FWIW, I'm in Western Europe, and "social media"-free (besides occasional use
of HN) for about good five plus years. Not that I was a ravenous user before
that.

Happy to report that overall well-being, reading pleasure and concentration
levels have measurably increased. (I "just" need to continue to peacefully
sustain it.)

PS: Normally, at this hour I would be at my Dutch class; but tonight it was
"interim feedback day". And it was done in 40 minutes, instead of the regular
3 & 1/2 hour lesson; hence I'm coasting here. :-)

------
siruncledrew
What I find interesting is that tablet use increased slightly from 51% to 53%
over 2 years, while tablet sales across the industry are on a decline [1] with
the exception of a few companies such as Apple and Huawei.

This wasn't addressed in the Pew survey, but (purely speculation here), I
wonder if it's being driven by an increase in older people using tablets
rather than laptops/desktops, due to the larger screen sizes tablets offer
over a smartphone with similar capabilities.

Anecdotally, I've started to see older people (in their mid-40s to 60s) bring
iPads to meetings instead of laptops to take notes, email, and browse the web.

[1]
[https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44191918](https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44191918)

------
chooseaname
Was never a heavy social media user, however, Twitter is nice for getting
local government updates.

FB is just gross.

------
megaman8
With this finding, I hope we can get back to developing atom based solutions
as opposed to bit solutions (reference avc.com).

------
jp555
The coming AR computing epoch will again increase the hours/day we’re staring
at (through?) screens.

~~~
titzer
Not for me. I've been steadily reducing my screen time outside of work on
purpose. AR/VR sound like a nightmare when I think about how pervasive obscene
advertising will become.

~~~
ben_w
Good point about adverts. I’m so used to using ad blockers that I had
completely forgotten about them.

In the absence of adverts, I can easily believe I will be a heavy user of
augmented reality, as I already find the limited form on my phone extremely
useful (translation mainly, but I have also used AR as a ruler, and a previous
employer’s main app uses it to tell hikers what the nearby hills are called).

~~~
trophycase
Forgot about advertisements? They are literally everywhere. On clothes, on
cars, at the bottom of your shopping cart, at the gas station, on the plane,
even in the baggage screening bins.

~~~
ben_w
Other than branding, there isn’t any on clothes or cars around here, and only
very occasionally on cars in the last place I lived (and even then 3:1 in
favour of the advert being a hand written private sale offer for the car
itself). Likewise, none on shopping carts or in gas stations around here. The
only adverts I’ve seen in aircraft (unless you count in-flight menus) are in
RyanAir aircraft, which I avoid. None in any baggage screening bins I’ve used
either — those have all been plain grey no matter the airport or country.

I presume from you saying “gas station” that you’re in America. The EU doesn’t
generally have as much advertising.

