The morning rush is something most of us share with Singapore’s mighty and tired workforce…and their phones.
According to global research consultancy TNS, the average Singaporean millennial (aged 16-30) spends 3.4 hours a day on their mobile devices — that’s approximately 24 hours every week, or 52 days a year. Compared to the world average of 3.2 hours a day, this makes our millennials one of the most addicted to mobile phones.
The study also revealed what millennials do on their phones: they split their time between watching videos which accounts for 42% of device time, browsing social media platforms (41%), and online shopping (16%). And like we expected, media consumption in traditional ways like radio, TV, and newspapers are much lower than previous generations.
What Can You Do In 52 Days?
52 days per year is a heck lot of time. To give you a sense of how much time that is, we’ve broken it down into things you can actually accomplish in 52 days:
- Listen to everything by The Beatles more than 100 times
- Get a beach bod (or at least half of it)
- Learn to be a pro gamer
- Watch the Lord Of The Rings trilogy over 300 times
- Almost finish a semester of school and then drop out and start a business
- Learn and master a new hobby
- Watch the Star Wars movies in order over 100 times with snack breaks
- Rear a kitten and watch it become a teenage cat
- Keep sea monkeys and watch them perish
- Finish slightly more than #100HappyDays
- Build a house
- Learn to drive, and maybe beginner racing
- Go to Japan without flying and back 3 times
- Watch the entire series of Breaking Bad 10 times with toilet and meal breaks
Are you freaking out yet over the time you’ve let slip (literally) right through your fingers? What would you do if you had 52 days?
With the mobile usage habits of millennials and older generations being so different, is there is a need for previous generations to adopt the online medium? Is it even important to bridge the digital divide?
Perhaps it is time for a media revolution in Singapore. While that sounds unlikely, given the stronghold of mainstream media and how they have also adapted to the digital era, it would be definitely refreshing to see a change in how people consume media. After all, we are what we eat, and if that diet consists of short bursts of buzz articles and the instant gratification of social media, then maybe it is time to talk about our media diet and the quality of things we consume.
