{"id":18980,"date":"2014-02-27T10:40:05","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T15:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/americans-increasingly-view-the-internet-cellphones-as-essential\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:23","slug":"americans-increasingly-view-the-internet-cellphones-as-essential","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/02\/27\/americans-increasingly-view-the-internet-cellphones-as-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans increasingly view the internet, cellphones as essential"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How hard would it be to give up your cellphone, the internet, your television or your landline telephone? When the Pew Research Center&#8217;s Internet Project <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2014\/02\/27\/summary-of-findings-3\/#digital-technology-is-viewed-as-increasingly-essential\">posed that question to Americans<\/a>,\u00a0they found that internet users were the most attached to their communication platform &#8212; and that landline users are now much less attached than they were just eight years ago.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-255847\" alt=\"More Americans say giving up the internet and cellphones would be very hard or impossible.\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png\" width=\"310\" height=\"707\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2014\/02\/27\/the-web-at-25-in-the-u-s\/\">survey<\/a>\u00a0asked Americans about a total of six different communication technologies: the internet, cellphones, television, email, landlines and social media.\u00a0Over half of internet users now say the internet would be &#8220;very hard&#8221; to give up. And among this devoted group, 61% said the internet was <em>essential<\/em> to them, either for work or other reasons. Translated to the whole population, 39% of all Americans feel they absolutely need to have internet access.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while cellphone owners were pretty attached to their phones in 2006 (43% said they would be very hard to give up), that attachment has since grown: 49% would now have a very hard time giving them up.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These findings contrast with a declining attachment to televisions and landline telephones. Only 35% of Americans say they&#8217;d have a very hard time giving up their television, down from 44% in 2006. And only 28% of landline telephone owners would find it difficult to cut the cord, a sharp drop from the 48% who said this in 2006.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This may not be surprising. Americans have been <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/economics\/2013\/09\/05\/about-1-in-3-households-has-no-landline-phone\/\">ditching their landlines<\/a>\u00a0for years, as more households rely solely on cellphones. And our digital devices are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nielsen.com\/us\/en\/reports\/2014\/the-us-digital-consumer-report.html\">offering us more and more ways to consume content<\/a> beyond the televisions parked in our living rooms.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What may come as a surprise, however, especially considering that a majority of Facebook users\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/12\/30\/social-media-update-2013\/\">check in on the site on a daily basis<\/a>,\u00a0is the low level of attachment to social media. Only 11% of internet users say social media would be very hard to give up, while 40% said it wouldn&#8217;t be difficult at all.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Americans are growing more attached to modern digital technologies, such as cellphones and the internet, and  less attached to traditional hardware, such as landline phones and televisions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713064175","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[305,307,348],"bylines":[932],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[526],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-18980","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-platforms-services","category-social-media","category-television","bylines-andrea-caumont","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-internet"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":317,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/02\/27\/americans-increasingly-view-the-internet-cellphones-as-essential\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":29258,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png?w=310&h=317&crop=1","width":310,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":29258,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":29258,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":29258,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":29258,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png?w=310&h=405&crop=1","width":310,"height":405,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":29258,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/02\/FT_14.02.27_DigitalPriorities_310px.png?w=310&h=628&crop=1","width":310,"height":628,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Americans increasingly view the internet, cellphones as essential","description":"Americans are growing more attached to modern digital technologies, such as cellphones and the internet, and  less attached to traditional hardware, such as landline phones and televisions. 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