Unplugging Survey: Few Take Regular Technology Breaks

Today is a National Day of Unplugging, which is meant to encourage people to put down their laptops, tablets and cellphones and enjoy the non-tech world around them. Since we live in an increasingly connected world, unplugging has become more difficult for a lot of people. So how many still take regular technology breaks? And how many think that unplugging is an important thing to do?

Technology Use

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 25% of respondents said that they spend more than ten hours a day, on average, connected to the internet in some way. 16% spend between eight and ten hours online a day. 27% spend between five and seven hours online. Another 27% said they are usually online for between two and four hours a day. And just 6% said they spend an hour or less online each day. In addition, 51% of respondents said that they’ve used the internet while they were on vacation. 21% have used it while at parties. Another 21% have gone online while they were out to dinner. 13% have connected while hosting guests. And another 13% have done so at the movies.

Unplugging

Overall, just 20% of respondents said that they take regular technology breaks where they unplug from all of their devices. 32% said they just do this on occasion. 10% said that they take breaks from some of their devices, but not all of them at once. And 38% of respondents said that they never unplug or take breaks from technology.

Technology Opinions

Even though many don’t unplug regularly, 66% of respondents believe that taking regular technology breaks can be beneficial. And 74% agreed that it is possible for people to use the internet or their mobile devices too often. Some even rely so heavily on technology that they wouldn’t be able to take a break even if they really needed to; 31% of respondents said they would be unlikely to be able to unplug from internet-connected devices for a week-long vacation. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: unplugged from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on March 2 via AYTM’s online survey panel.