A new study about mobile phone etiquette by the Pew Research Center found that more than a third of millennials use their cell phones “for no particular reason” other than to have “something to do”.
As Pew notes, the new issues of etiquette introduced by the relatively new phenomenon of widepsread mobile phone use have been met with different responses by different generations. The generation gap with mobile etiquette, however, is not as wide as one might assume.
For example, in adults’ response to questions of situational appropriateness for mobile phones, 96 percent agreed that phones were not okay to use in religious settings and 95 percent in cinemas or “other places where others are usually quiet.”
As The Washington Post commented, it is often said that millennials are “horrible, antisocial subhumans who can’t be bothered to tear themselves away from their screens.” Older generations, however, aren’t much different from their millennial counterparts: the study found that 13 percent of them do the same thing with their phone to avoid interacting with others. 23 percent of cellphone owners reported using their phone in in public for this antisocial purpose frequently or occasionally, which accounts for 6 percent of all public cell phone use.
Perhaps the most striking statistic from the study was that 89 percent of all mobile phone users said they used their device at they last social event they attended.
Though this behavior may sound asocial and withdrawn, Pew found that most of the people using their mobile phones at social functions used them for a purpose related to the social function. A 45 percent plurality reported that they used their phones to share a video or photo that they had taken of the event; 41 percent said that they used their device to share “something that had occurred in the group” via a social media site, text or email and slightly smaller groups polled reported similar social activity with their phones.
Perhaps predictably, Pew found that overall, millennials approved of cellphone use in more situations and places than older generations. They are also more likely to use them in social settings and tolerate their use.
