Current cellphone use in America and future projections

       Think back to your first cellphone. Think about the things you used to do with it. Were you able to access the Internet? Play virtually any game in the world? How about take pictures and videos that had the same resolution as an expensive camera? Well they can now and one group of Americans is taking advantage of the new advances.

The PEW research institution conducted a study on cell phone usage among the age groups 18-29, 30-49,50-64 and 65+. The research proved that young adults ages (19-29) are the most active mobile device users with the highest percentage that text, take pictures, play games and download apps. The chart below shows the percentage use of cell phones across all age groups.

What does this mean for the future of cell phone use in America? All people in the U.S will eventually start to become dependent on their mobile devices. As the older generation pass away the younger generations will grow up savvy to the new technology and develop a greater dependence on smart phone capabilities decreases the vast percentage differences of usage. The world is now a place where young adults depend on their smart phones for things that people never would think of. As an example look at this chart I made based on information the PEW center gathered.

	Had trouble doing something without cell-phone	Used cell-phone to retrieve information quickly when needed	Used cell-phone to provide entertainment
Young Adults (19-29)	42%	64%	70%
Adults	27%	51%	42%

       As you can tell by this graph there is an obvious difference between the dependencies adults have on their mobile devices and the dependency young adults have on their mobile devices. Young adults have grown up with the technological developments of the cell-phone. Children have been taught to depend on them from a young age. According to a study by the Personal Finance Education Group on average children are getting cellphones by age eight. According to the PEW research group the average age kids used to get cell-phones was 12-13 just. This shows that children are now receiving cell-phones about four years before children from past generations.

       The fact that children are receiving cell-phones at a much younger age means a dependency is created even earlier on in their lives. As an adult (30 +) during childhood it was rare to have a cell-phone as a child and smart phones were non-existent. This accounts for the steep increase in cell-phone dependency throughout the years. With the technology of today and the dependency people have developed cell-phones/smart phones are a must have.

In his article “Forecast: More US Mobile Web Users Than PC By 2015”, Greg Sterling analyzes a report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) that claims by 2015 more people will access the Internet through mobile devices than through the Internet. The PC will soon become second to smart-phones and other devices such as ipads and tablets.

            The long-term capabilities of cell-phones are still developing. One thing that is clear however is that the U.S will increase its use of cell-phones and become more dependent on the features they provide. The video below gives you a glimpse into what the future holds for cell-phones.

       The future for cell-phones has however been met with one rising concern: The possibility that cell phone use causes cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute there is no viable evidence that using a cell-phone causes cancer. The institute writes on their fact sheet that some studies have been done that show a correlation between cell-phone use and brain cancer but majority of studies conducted do not support the claim. But will people really care when they could be holding a cell-phone like the one below? 

Please answer the three poll questions listed next to this post!