36% of adult smartphone owners use messaging apps, while 17% use apps that automatically delete sent messages. These types of apps are adding to an already complex terrain of digital and social communication. Meanwhile, social media platforms continue to attract dedicated users.
For many Americans, cellphones are always present and rarely turned off. This creates new social challenges, as people believe that different public and social settings warrant different sensitivities for civil behavior.
In a few short years, the proliferation of mobile phone networks has transformed communications in sub-Saharan Africa. It has also allowed Africans to skip the landline stage of development and jump right to the digital age.
As more people around the world gain access to all the tools of the digital age, the internet will play a greater role in everyday life. And so far, people in emerging and developing nations say that the increasing use of the internet has been a good influence in the realms of education, personal relationships and the economy.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans now own a smartphone. 19% of Americans rely to some extent on a smartphone for internet access, but the connections to digital resources that they offer are tenuous for many of these users.
No research has compared app-based surveys with polls administered via Web browsers. Our new, experimental work compares the results of these two modes.
Experts foresee changes across all aspects of life as digital connectivity advances. They predict hyper-personalized interactions, 3D holograms, immersive virtual reality and a deepening dependency upon machines as we navigate our lives.