The number of hours that young people consult their cellphone falls

A survey reveals that for the first time the use of mobile phones in the youngest segment of the population is decreasing.

Telling a young man to stop looking at his mobile phone at a table or in a public place has become a losing battle in most cases. The images of groups of kids gathered looking at their mobile phones in a zombie plan are quite common, although millennials and some older ones are not left behind in these behaviors either.

However, an investigation by the market research company Kantar TNS shows that the use of telephones and tablets in the segment between the ages of 16 and 24 has fallen for the first time.

In total we spend 2.4 hours a day looking at mobile devices and the youngest ones open an app every fifteen minutes, although the total use of the latter has started to fall since they have records.

In addition, it is curious that the time dedicated to using the telephone by older people has an upward trajectory (they went from 36 to 54 minutes a day with only one year apart).

During 2016, according to the survey, people between 16 and 24 years old spent 3.8 hours per day on their device, compared to 3.9 the previous year. When asked about their habits, more than a third of young people globally (39% in Spain) assumed that they use their phones and tablets too much and that they planned to reduce their use.

The lack of relaxation time due to notifications, the loss of concentration and, by extension of the latter, the loss of productivity and performance.

According to a spokesperson of the company to The Times "it is likely that by becoming a device that is an indisputable part of our daily lives young people stop paying so much attention or slightly decrease its use."

Keep in mind that the average viewing of screens in all age ranges, counting computers, is 5 hours a day, not counting working hours. This figure rises to 6.7 hours in the smallest.

In Spain, mistrust prevails

At the Spanish level, the Connected Life study includes a couple of conclusions about Spanish youth and their relationship with these devices. First, 41% do not want to pay with the mobile at this point, with the barrier of distrust of the system as the main handicap.

On the other hand, 61% are concerned about the power that social networks have over content that appears on their walls, while 53% do not give credibility in what is published in their media.