{"id":108520,"date":"2018-12-20T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/the-rise-of-reduced-screen-time-and-what-it-means-for-digital-marketers-2\/"},"modified":"2024-12-20T09:24:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T14:24:45","slug":"the-rise-of-reduced-screen-time-and-what-it-means-for-digital-marketers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/the-rise-of-reduced-screen-time-and-what-it-means-for-digital-marketers-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of Reduced Screen Time\u2014and What it Means for Digital Marketers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smartphones are a lot like Asian carp. Asian carp were innocently brought to North America in the \u201860s as a new food source to help control unruly algae and snail populations. This fish quickly became one of the most invasive species in modern history, decimating vegetation and destroying the spawning habitats of countless native species across North American waterways.<\/p>\n

So how exactly are smartphones like these guys?<\/p>\n

This story also starts innocently. A decade ago, I vividly remember being awestruck in an Apple Store, swiping and pinching the iPhone for the first time (happily ignoring that thick layer of grubby mall-filth covering the screen). How we all coveted this elegant new marvel of handheld technology, featuring hot new App Store essentials like Photo Light Sabre, Bright Flashlight, or iBeer (a virtual beer to drink with friends!).<\/p>\n

Fast forward 10 years and smartphones are now glued to practically everyone aged 12 and up, playing a central role in some of the most fundamental aspects of human life, and \u201cdisrupting\u201d work, friendships, romance, commerce, transportation, and more.<\/p>\n

Smartphones are ubiquitous. But ubiquity can be a dangerous quality, as it\u2019s oddly difficult for us to notice something that\u2019s everywhere<\/em>. That kind of ignorance can have insidious effects; a silent invasion can literally happen in front of our faces without anyone noticing.<\/p>\n

Masked by their undeniable convenience, over the past decade smartphones have given rise to software that has quietly eroded our mental health, relationships, sleep, attention spans, politics, privacy, and trust\u2014and the mounting concern associated with this invasive technology is becoming impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the topic finally<\/em> emerged as worthy of public discourse. Manufacturers now offer dashboards to help us monitor our usage, parents are rightly so restricting screen time for kids, and legions of people are deleting their social media apps<\/a>. In 2018, we very well may have reached \u201cpeak mobile\u201d.<\/p>\n

2019 will be a defining year for smartphones. Many of us will undertake the responsibility to reduce our screen time, and this is greatly needed progress. Healthier device habits are unquestionably good for society, but what does this mean for digital marketers?<\/p>\n

Who’s actually reducing screen time?<\/h2>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

You’ve likely scrolled past articles celebrating social media fasts, encouraging device-free dinner time, denouncing push notifications, and praising digital detoxes. There\u2019s a groundswell of very sensible public concern that\u2019s bubbling up and popping into the mainstream.<\/p>\n

According to a Pew Research survey<\/a>, 42% of Facebook users aged 18-54 say they\u2019ve taken a break from checking the social network for several weeks or more, while 26% admitted they deleted the app from their phone entirely.<\/p>\n

Health-conscious parents instinctively worry about the effect these devices have on young brains, and as a result, may naturally confront their own habits. \u201cTechnoference\u201d<\/a> is a term psychologist are now using to describe the negative effect mobile devices have on family relationships and child behaviour.<\/p>\n

The optimistic assumption here is that admitting you have a smartphone addiction is a leading indicator of reducing your screen time. So when a recent survey<\/a> indicated 40% of mothers and 32% of fathers admit to having some sort of phone addiction, a massive behavioural shift could very well be on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s combine that with what we recently learned at an Adobe conference\u2014that millennials are expected to outpace baby boomers<\/a> as \u201cthe largest wallet\u201d online next year. This \u201cscreen-conscious\u201d segment is growing, it\u2019s valuable, and it\u2019s not yet figured out.<\/p>\n

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