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35% Use Mobile Apps Before Getting Out of Bed 180

Posted by samzenpus from the sleeping-alone dept.
alphadogg writes "Thirty-five percent of Android and iPhone owners in the US use apps such as Facebook on their smartphone before even getting out of bed, according to a survey conducted by telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson. The most popular in-bed activity is accessing social networks. Eighteen percent of users log in while they are still in bed, and the most popular application is Facebook, Ericsson wrote."
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35% Use Mobile Apps Before Getting Out of Bed More

35% Use Mobile Apps Before Getting Out of Bed

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  • how else are you suppused to check the weather? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by alen ( 225700 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @11:04AM (#36108006)

    look at the weather channel widget on my HTC Inspire. took longer when i had an iphone. and watching TV to find out what the weather is going to be is simply too time consuming

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Open your curtains?

    • but I am a Luddite. No TV or computer in my bedroom. Not even the iPad invades our space. Though we did talk about putting a TV in the bathroom behind the mirror. That might happen. If anything not having the world show up in our bedroom has made life so much better.

      Now I will admit to the cell phones do have cradles in the bedroom.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Hatta ( 162192 )

        Research shows that couples with a TV in their bedroom have less sex than those without. So good call.

  • on the screen of my phone while still in bed basically every week day.

    I suspect that's more popular than Facebook...

    • Exactly what I was thinking :) I tend to snooze several times..

      • I did away with snooze. I have 3 alarms now.

        Alarm 1: Do you want/need to go in early?
        Alarm 2: Do you want to go in on time?
        Alarm 3: This as late as you should probably go in...

        You get better sleep if you set it for the last possible minute. Harder to do than snooze, but it's true. But if you are just hitting snooze because you don't want to get up instead of being tired I guess it doesn't matter.

    • I have a nifty little app that will ask me to add/subtract/multiply a few numbers to snooze/dismiss the alarm, works wonders for getting me out of bed to use a calculator when it's too much to handle for my half-asleep brain. ;) Of course I go right back to bed again but at least I'm somewhat more awake than I would have been just pressing the snooze button.

  • Brain warmup (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mehrotra.akash ( 1539473 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @11:06AM (#36108060)

    When you are sleepy (about to sleep, or just up), doing something non brain intensive like Facebook lets your brain ramp up to the real world with an intermediate step.

    For some people its the news, for some its their mail, for some its coffee, and now for some its Facebook

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lundse ( 1036754 )

      Yup.

      My grogginess, morning personality and lack of selfcontrol re. the snooze button all benefit immensely from having a few webcomics and some light news to lure my brain to wake up. Makes the next step (actually waking up) a bit easier. Together with sleep-as-an-droid, they have made my mornings much better.

      I can only presume the outraged luddites commenting here feel equally horrified by reading a the paper, a book or a comic as part of a wake-up ritual...

      • How do you read the paper or a book without first getting out of bed? Last I checked my paper wasn't delivered under my pillow. I'd rather just keep my eyes shut and listen to the radio.

        We're not luddites. We're just not technophiliacs.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Lundse ( 1036754 )

          Bedside table/pile.

          The luddite comment was meant for whoever posted that I need professional help. I assume you too need help, using a radio so early in your day :-)

          Radio or RSS-reader, just ways to get the news in bed. As a waking up ritual. I am just saying that my choice of technology is not a problem, just as yours is not.

      • I've tried using that and some other sleep-detection systems (currently using a Zeo, which gives a lot more detail about your sleep process.) Having the alarm go off when you're in lighter parts of the sleep cycle is much better than having it go off in deeper parts.

        But if you're having lots of grogginess problems in the morning, you might check whether you've got sleep apnea or other sleep problems.

        I've got an indoor/outdoor thermometer in the bedroom - it helps to know what the temperatures are like befo

    • Re:Brain warmup (Score:5, Funny)

      by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @11:25AM (#36108352) Homepage
      Oh, come on. It's not a "brain warmup". It's "OMG I've been asleep for eight hours WHAT HAPPENED WHILE I WAS OFFLINE! I must know!" I took a trip to an offshore island where there was no cell phone service, and one of my companions was beside herself because she couldn't check facebook, couldn't update her status to tell everyone she was on an island, couldn't upload photos and get jealous comments from her acquaintances. This is a person who took shots of every dish we were served at dinner...WTF? Halfway through the ferry trip to the mainland, her phone got service again. You should have seen her face, she was ecstatic like a serious journalist on Obama's election night.

      • Some years ago, one thing people commented about liking about Burning Man was that they were really really offline, middle of nowhere, no phone or Internet, if they had any communications it was walkie-talkies to friends in their camp. You could Be Here Now, because you couldn't really be anywhere else. Even Brad's Phone Booth didn't change that much, because there was just one of it and it stayed in one place and you could stand in line.

        Now that people have done really cool stuff with satellites and wi

    • Funny, I've done this twice already. It's just really relaxing for 5 minutes before getting up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      For some people its the news, for some its their mail, for some its coffee, and now for some its Facebook

      Sure, but people tend to get out of bed for those.

      Also reading the paper or mail is a self limiting activity. It's easy to spend all day on social networks, and starting something like that before you even get out of bed could just encourage you to stay there.

  • My phone doesn't even come into the bedroom with me. It stays in the living room at night. If it's so deathly important for someone to get a hold of me, I have a door bell.
    • Agreed. I don't have a smartphone (and it will quite possibly be hell freezes over before I get one willingly) but as soon as I get home it's tossed onto the kitchen counter and generally ignored until the nxt morning. There is a landline beside my bed and if it's *THAT* f'ing important you can call me on it. Otherwise you wait until morning.

      • Actually I stopped using my landline. I've got an answering machine and if it's important a message will be left. I don't get many mobile phone calls but when I do I'll answer them (phone in it's dorky holder on my trousers in a pile on the floor so that by the time I've dug it out I'm awake enough to answer).

        I may get a smart phone someday, but only because it seems that may become the only option in the US in a few years. But I sure as hell won't buy a data plan.

    • You take your doorbell to bed with you?

      I'd rather get a quiet text message than have someone ring my doorbell.. to each their own I suspect.
    • That's a great idea, if everyone important in your life lives within a distance that's drivable in an emergency.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by alen ( 225700 )

      who talks on the phone these days? phones are for surfing the net, reading books, reading newspapers, watching movies, listening to music, twitter, facebook and whatever else i'm missing. my phone is used for talking maybe an hour a month

    • It must be nice to have a job that will never, ever require you to come in and put out fires in the server room at 2 AM.

  • alarm >> /. >> woot >>drudge >> shower

  • Only if the alarm clock on my smart phone counts. I need to have it near me 24/7 (for that one time in 2 years there's a server emergency), so I may as well use it instead of the cheap old alarm clock. Never mind the amusing apologies from my boss when he behind-dials my number again.

    I don't usually check the weather forecast until I'm out of the bathroom.

    • Subject raises a point: I would use my smartphone before getting out of bed, but my cats start biting me if they see me awake and not putting food in their bowls.

  • Skewed sample (Score:3, Funny)

    by davevr ( 29843 ) on Thursday May 12, 2011 @11:19AM (#36108268) Homepage
    These are Americans - how many get out of bed during the day at all? Because that could skew things...
  • Also, not surprisingly, 72% check Facebook [itworld.com] from bed before going to sleep and 20% check Twitter. That's what happens when you keep your smartphone on your nightstand and/or work on your laptop into the wee hours.

  • ...the last thing you're going to do is pause to check who bought a new pig in farmville.

    What age bracket did they survey?

    • When my infant screams me awake My wife brings him in to our bed... I dont want to disturb his sleep, so I will do some surfin, news checkin, hockey scores, etc on my iPod for that last 15 - 20 minutes of quiet time.

    • And? What percentage of the population do you think has children young enough to wake them on a regular basis? I'd be shocked if it's as high as 5%

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by meloneg ( 101248 )

        A couple basic assumptions* and some simple arithmetic** says it's about 2.5%.

        * These are probably horrible assumptions, but hey I'm not even getting paid to do this analysis.
              Average lifespan: 80-years
              Duration a newborn is likely to do this: 1 year
              Average household size: 2

        ** (1/80) * 2

      • When someone has kids no matter what their age, they tend to have moved into the demographic that realizes there are more important things in the world than self.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sootman ( 158191 )

      Key word: infant. The kid-screaming-waking-up thing doesn't last very long.* Even if you have a few kids, that's only a few years, and what percentage of the population do you think has multiple infants at any given time?

      * though I understand if you're in the middle of it it might seem like forever. :-)

  • Technically, pressing snooze on the built-in alarm clock qualifies as "using an app", but luckily its not connected to facebook.

    • Technically, pressing snooze on the built-in alarm clock qualifies as "using an app", but luckily its not connected to facebook.

      Yet.

      • Here's what came to mind:

        Facebook vs. Snooze - An app that ties in to facebook in such a way that others see a "wake up" button [on your wall / in your news feed / something] at the time you set your alarm to go off. When someone clicks it, the button disables and your alarm rings. Pushing snooze not only silences your alarm, but re-enables said button.

        Hilarity ensues as people try to claim the honor of being the jerkface who finally woke you up.

  • small portable information screens can be used in bed.. I read books on my iPod, sometimes i read in bed. am i supposed to get up before I read something? I would say this is better for mental health than listening to the Morning Zoo, with Hawkeye and the Beej, or turning on a TV to watch Royal Wedding news.
  • Applications are supposed to be for productive work on your computer. Facebook is neither productive nor work. Really, it is better called a game.

  • I wonder if their survey population included only those who use Facebook via a smart phone and not "all Android and iPhone users".

    I'd also like to know what kind of question they used to derive such a conclusion.

    "Have you ever..." and "Do you regularly..." are often interchanged in marketing surveys for this very purpose.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eepok ( 545733 )

      From the report (http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2011/silicon_valley_brochure_letter.pdf):

      "To date in 2011, 35 percent of US Android/iPhone users interact with non-voice applications on their smartphones before getting out of bed. The most common activity here is checking Facebook â" 18 percent of social networking users log in while their heads are still on the pillow."

      That can easily mean that people turn off their alarms in bed. 18% of SOCIAL NETWORKING USERS log in while in bed.

      Completely differen

  • Am I the only one who doesn't really use Facebook? I have an account but I never login unless I receive some strange friend request and HAVE to log in to reject it.
    I think Facebook is some sort of "I have nothing to do with my time so I go to Facebook to make time pass". I find 24 hours to not be enough for all the important things. Facebook is NOT one of those things. At all.
    I think that makes me a weirdo nowadays...

  • I use my iPhone for an alarm clock, so I guess I'm in that 35%.

    • Was thinking the same thing. I may check the weather, but I always have to turn off the damn alarm!

  • Whoops (Score:2)

    by Triv ( 181010 )
    The study appears to have missed something fairly crucial and not especially obvious to people over 30 - they differentiate phone calls from "smartphone non-voice usage" at various times of the day, but apparently fail to take into account the fact that, for many young people, their alarm clocks are apps on their phones - I interact with my phone every morning in bed, but it's because it's waking me up, not because I'm checking facebook.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Triv ( 181010 )

      ...which, if I had bothered to read the opening paragraph instead of jumping right to the charts, I would have noticed was factored in and included as "interaction."

      Whoops indeed.

      My issue I guess is with the summary - "apps such as facebook" implies applications with functionality similar to facebook, rather than applications, one of which is a facebook app.

      ah well.

  • I generally make a point of having the only electricity-using devices in the bedroom be the lights and the alarm clock. (And if my wife didn't require it be a radio alarm clock, I'd make do with an old fashioned wind-up 'hammer-between-two-bells' model.) My phone's charger is in the home office one room over. The phone rings loud enough that it will wake me up; but I don't leave it in the bedroom.

    Only caveat - if I'm sick and stuck in bed. Then I'll use the phone in bed.

    I occasionally read a book on my

  • 35% of US smartphone users admit to using apps before even getting out of bed. Doctors advise [newstechnica.com] the other 65% that it is "entirely natural" and "nothing to be ashamed of."

    The most popular in-bed activity admitted to is accessing "social networks," as respondents called it, doing air-quotes. The most common complaint is that the screen is too small to display photos properly, and that it does not wipe clean sufficiently well. Many were tempted to buy a tablet next.

    Smartphone vendors and app writers have tried to capitalise on the bedroom market. Vibrate mode is particularly popular and is thought to be driving the accessories market for protective silicone cases.

    "Social networking" (air-quoted) remains important when people first wake up, since most are alone and will forever stay that way. 20 percent do a last "check-in" (also air-quoted) before going to sleep at night.

    Sociologists suggest the bedroom "apping" phenomenon will be self-limiting, given the effects on fertility of carrying a microwave transmitter in your pocket all day right next to your gonads.

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