Photo via Pew Research Center
Photo via Pew Research Center

Do you feel that you’re constantly staring at a screen?

You might be. Look around. A little over a fifth, or 21 percent, of Americans say that they are online “almost constantly,” according to this new report by the Pew Research Center.

Pew cites the constant connection to “smartphones and other mobile devices” as a major factor that keeps us hooked to the Internet.

Photo via Pew Research Center
Photo via Pew Research Center

What about the rest of us? Pew found that 73 percent of Americans go online daily, in addition to the 21 percent who are on almost all the time, 42 percent go online “several times a day,” and 10 percent about once a day. Only 13 percent go online several times a week or less.

Thirteen percent say they don’t use the Internet “at all.”

Of course, age is a huge factor in connectivity. Pew found that 36 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds go online almost constantly, 50 percent several times a day.

Teens are also a high-use group, 24 percent going online “almost constantly,” and 92 percent being online every day, Pew found in an earlier study released this year. They reported that 91 percent of teens use the Internet via a mobile device.

Just 6 percent of people 65-plus go online “almost constantly,” and just 24 percent go online multiple times per day.

Pew notes that this is the first survey in which they’ve used the phrase “almost constantly,” as a response option.

The Pew breakdown also includes ethnicity, education and income as influencing factors as to how much a person would be online (see chart to the right). Not surprisingly, 29 percent of college grads are online “almost constantly,” which for the modern working world isn’t that much of a surprise.

Take a look at more Pew stats on online usage here.

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