Phone usage is way up during the COVID-19 lockdown

Now that we’re all stuck at home (well, most of us), many of us need to be creative about what we do with our spare time. Watching new movies, taking up a new hobby, or exercising are all good ways to pass the time, but what about the old default of scrolling through social media?

Personally, I’ve found my phone usage has gone way up while being stuck at home. I catch myself looking at Instagram and YouTube more than usual. I think I usually check Instagram to see what others are doing with their exciting lives, so it’s sort of a habit for me to continue doing so even though most people I follow are being good humans and participating in social distancing.

At any rate, I asked you last week about your phone usage during the COVID-19 lockdown. Out of hundreds of votes, most of you appear to be in the same boat as me.

How often have you been using your phone during the COVID-19 lockdown?

Results

Out of almost 700 total votes, a strong majority (55.6%) of Android Authority readers said they’re using their smartphones way more than usual now that they’re stuck at home. This isn’t too surprising — people are naturally limited to what they can do while staying indoors. Also, an abundance of new movies are launching for at-home viewing, and there are tons of free services to take advantage of on our smartphones. Also, you know, it’s pretty easy to endlessly scroll through Instagram and Twitter.

36.9% of voters said they’re using their phones about the same as before, while a measly 7.4% of voters said they’re using their phones way less than usual. To those voters, please tell me: How are you doing this?

Here’s what you had to say

Here are some of the best comments from last week’s poll explaining why they voted the way that they did:

• Kanaka Bhaswara Prabhata: about the same, i’m a laptop person 😅
• Paul: Usage is about the same, but instead of watching YouTube or movies at lunch, I spend more time reading on the phone. The phone not having to hunt for signal in my basement office at work helps battery life: It’s 7:30 in the evening, and after 17 hours off the charger my phone is at 72%.
• pda96: My laptop is much more convenient to use now that I’m at home. I only use the phone to make calls or text messages.
• Painfully_Candid: I’m not sure why our phone use would be all that different. 90% of my communication with everyone is via text messaging. About 9% is via other social networks: Twitter, Facebook/Messenger, Instagram, in that order. The final 1% is via actual phone call. Nothing has change in the amount or percentages since this stupidity began.
• nix: Im always on my phones and tablet regardless of this pandemic lol

That’s it for this week. As always, thanks for voting, thanks for the comments, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the results below!