The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: July 22, 2007

Official News - page 7


REAL LIFE NEWS: HOW DO YOU TALK?

by Hazed

Mobile communications have affected people's lives in all sorts of ways. Since the advent of the mobile phone back in the last century, we have discovered new ways to keep in touch. Now a new survey has documented just how people use communications technology, and it's come up with some pretty startling conclusions.

The survey focused on manager-level employees and above, and was carried out in the US, the UK and Australia. Respondents reported that they often participated in conference calls from home, sent or received emails while attending meetings, or used their smartphone to keep up with work even while at personal events such as weddings or funerals. Presumably not their own wedding, and definitely not their own funeral!

In another more general survey, we see that British people spend an average of ten months of their adult lives talking on their mobile phone, making an average of 88,000 calls. Women spend on average two months longer than men chatting on their mobiles over their lifetime. (That wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that women generally live longer than men, would it?)

Both of these surveys suggest that people will answer their phone whatever the circumstances. A quarter of Brits said they would pick up a call on their mobile while on the toilet, and one in five will answer while having a bath. The manager-types are twice as likely to answer their smartphones while on the toilet as regular phone users, and senior managers were much more likely than their staff to have taken part in a conference call wearing their pajamas. Thank goodness the video phone never really caught on!


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