One in three in Northern Ireland ditch their device to digitally detox

• Majority of internet users say they're 'hooked', spending almost 19 hours a week online
• Study shows effects of internet use on sleep, family and relationships
• Detoxers find time offline productive, while others fear missing out
• But internet also making life easier and broadening our horizons

Around one in three internet users in Northern Ireland have taken a 'digital detox' in the last year in a bid to strike a healthier balance between technology and life beyond the screen, according to major new Ofcom research.

The study reveals how our reliance on the internet is affecting people's personal and working lives, leading many to seek time away from the web to spend time with friends and family.

Ofcom's Communications Market Report Northern Ireland 2016 finds that over a third of internet users in Northern Ireland (36%) have sought a period of time offline.

Two-thirds of people (65%) had cut down on specific activities, such as using social media or browsing the web, and half of parents (49%) had made rules of some sort to limit their children's time online.

The most common reasons for taking a 'tech timeout' were to spend more time doing other things (cited by 62%) and more time with friends and family (43%).

Many people found their time offline to be a positive experience - 29% felt more productive while 38% were less distracted.

However, a quarter (25%) of digital detoxers experienced a 'fear of missing out' (FOMO) while on the web wagon, 18% felt lost and 22% 'cut off'.

Embracing the online world

More people in Northern Ireland are now online, at home and on the move, than ever before, the report shows.

More than three quarters of homes in Northern Ireland (77%) now have a fixed line broadband connection, up from 69% in 2015. Customers are also embracing faster mobile internet connections, with more than half of adults in Northern Ireland (54%) having a 4G mobile service - up from 26% in 2015.

People in Northern Ireland are also increasingly using smartphones to get online. Seven in ten people (72%) own a smartphone, up from 63% in 2015, and it remains the most popular device for accessing the internet.

As a result of being better connected, people in Northern Ireland can spend more time doing what they love online, such as chatting with friends and family via instant messaging services and streaming music.

Almost nine in 10 internet users (86%) in Northern Ireland also consider it 'important' to their daily lives and many credit it with broadening their horizons. Three-quarters of internet users (77%) say that being online means they can do things that they would previously have been unable to do, while over seven in ten (71%) said it inspired them to try new things such as travel destinations, restaurants, recipes or entertainment. Sixty-one per cent of internet users agreed that they would know a lot less about the world if they did not have access to the internet, while eight in ten people in Northern Ireland (80%) also feel that communicating over the web has made life easier.

Connectivity creep

As a result of the internet's importance in many people's daily lives, people in Northern Ireland now spend around 18.6 hours a week online. The most popular internet activities among internet users were general browsing (92%) and using email (84%). Seven in ten (70%) internet users purchased goods or services online in 2016, while 63% used social networking sites.

Six in ten internet users in Northern Ireland (61%) even consider themselves 'hooked' on their connected device, while almost one in five (18%) say they feel nervous or anxious when they are offline.

Many internet users in Northern Ireland are, however, facing up to the consequences of spending too much time online, and recognising how this can affect their work and personal lives.

Just over six in ten internet users in Northern Ireland (62%) said they were guilty of 'connectivity creep' - spending longer browsing the internet than they originally intended on a weekly basis, while 53% said the same of social media.

As a result, almost six in ten (59%) say they'd neglected housework; 45% said they had missed out on sleep; while three in ten (30%) had missed out on spending time with family and friends.

Tech tardiness was another reported side effect, with a quarter (26%) admitting to being late for a meeting with friends and family as a result of being online too long. A similar proportion (24%) said they'd neglected their work after spending too much time online.

People also reported a lack of 'netiquette' from strangers who can't seem to put their devices down. One-in-seven (15%) complained that someone bumped into them in the street at least once a week because they were too busy looking at their phone.

Smart-snubbing

Our fixation with our connected devices is also getting in the way of face-to-face communication, according to the research.

Nearly four in ten adults in Northern Ireland (37%) felt they'd been 'smart-snubbed' (ignored by a friend or relative too engrossed in their smartphone or tablet) at least once a week; while 19% said this happened on a daily basis.

The research also suggests some people are choosing to text or instant message friends and family instead of talking face-to-face, even though they're sitting in the same room. More than a quarter (27%) of people in Northern Ireland had done this at home.

Traditional media still popular but instant messaging's a hit

Despite the rise in online activity, traditional media remains popular. Indeed 97% of people tuned in to live TV at least once a week, the greatest proportion of any media activity measured. Around three quarters of households (74%) subscribe to pay TV services - up from 71% in 2015 - higher than the UK average.

Our research also shows that TV is still by far the most important source of news in Northern Ireland (62% of adults say this is their main source of UK and world news), followed by radio (17%) and websites/apps (9%), all higher than newspapers (4%).

People are also embracing newer online services, however, with instant messaging seeing the biggest rise in popularity. Nearly half of adults (49%) now use services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, up from 31% in 2014.

The research shows that people in Northern Ireland are spending more time listening to streamed music and playing video games, and less time watching DVDs and texting than they were two years ago.

Since 2014, the amount of time spent each day listening to streamed music increased by 24 minutes, to 52 minutes. Similarly, the amount of time spent playing video games increased by 22 minutes on average per day to 1 hour and 21 minutes during the same period. Meanwhile, the amount of time watching DVDs was down 10 minutes to 34 minutes, while people are spending around 18 minutes less per day texting than they were in 2014 (now 24 minutes).

Jonathan Rose, Ofcom Northern Ireland Director, said: "More people in Northern Ireland are now online at home and on the move than ever before. But our relationship with the web isn't always plain surfing and many people admit to feeling hooked.

"In search of a better tech-life balance, many people are choosing to take a bit of breathing space from the web and instead spending more time with friends and family."

Ofcom's Communications Market Report is a comprehensive annual study of the UK's internet, telecoms, broadcasting and postal sectors. The report acts as a reference for industry and consumers, and provides context and evidence for Ofcom's work in making communications services work for everyone.

Other market developments

Television

• In 2015, people in Northern Ireland spent an average of 3 hours 45 minutes per day watching broadcast television, less than in the other devolved nations but more than the UK average of 3 hours 36 minutes.
• Among those with a TV set in the household, 18% claimed to have a smart TV, which has not changed significantly since 2015. However, take-up in Northern Ireland remains lower than the UK overall (28%).
• Among those who use the internet at home or elsewhere (e.g. on their smartphone, tablet or laptop), more than two in five (44%) say they have ever watched TV programmes or films on a catch-up service (e.g. BBC iPlayer, All4, Demand 5, Sky On Demand). Around one in three internet users (29%) claimed to have watched these services in the past week.
• Around four in ten internet users (38%) have ever used stand-alone video subscription services (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime) with a quarter (25%) having done so in the week prior to being asked. This increased from 17% and 11% respectively in 2015.

Telecoms

• Among the four UK nations, Northern Ireland had the highest proportion of premises with outdoor 4G coverage from one or more mobile networks in May 2016, at 99.3%. With Three launching its 4G service in Northern Ireland in summer 2015, 4G coverage increased rapidly, and by May 2016, 59.9% of premises had outdoor coverage from all four 4G networks, the second highest proportion among the UK nations.
• In 2016, seven in ten adults in Northern Ireland (69%) said that they used their mobile phone to access the internet, with almost all these respondents saying they had done so in the previous week. These measures were in line with the UK average. Between 2015 and 2016, use of mobile phones to access the internet rose from 60% to 69%.
• Since 2015, there has been an increase in use of pay-monthly contract mobile phone services - from 51% to 60%, and in line with the UK average. There was a corresponding decrease in use of pre-pay services (from 43% to 34%). Three per cent of mobile phone users in Northern Ireland have a SIM-only contract.
• Nine in ten (91%) mobile phone users in Northern Ireland were 'very' or 'fairly' satisfied with their mobile phone reception in 2016 - higher than the UK average (87%), and an increase of six percentage points since 2015. Radio
• The proportion of the adult population who listen to radio in Northern Ireland was lower than the UK average in 2015, although radio still reached 86.6% of people in Northern Ireland. The average time spent listening in an average week in 2015 was 20.2 hours, again lower than the UK average (21.4 hours).
• The share of listening hours to local and nations' services in Northern Ireland is far higher than the UK average, and higher than in any other UK nation. Together, local commercial and the BBC nations' services (Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle) accounted for 59% of total listening hours in 2015.
• Twenty-five per cent of adults in Northern Ireland who listen to radio said they had at least one DAB radio set at home, in line with findings from 2015. Ownership of DAB digital radios among radio listeners in Northern Ireland remains much lower than the UK average (50%).

Internet

• Six in ten (60%) internet users in Northern Ireland aged 16-34 considered the smartphone their most important device for internet access, compared to 22% of internet users aged 55 and over.
• Since 2015 there has been a significant increase in tablet ownership among rural households in Northern Ireland (67% from 48%). Households in rural Northern Ireland are now more likely than urban households to own a tablet (67% vs. 55%).

Post

• Four in ten residents in Northern Ireland (43%) had not sent any items through the post in the past month, a higher proportion than in any other UK nation. The average number of items sent is, as a result, far lower than the UK figure (4.5 vs. 6.6).
• Just over half of adults in Northern Ireland (53%) said they had not sent a parcel through the post in the past month; this is broadly similar to all other UK nations. Nearly four in ten people in Northern Ireland (37%) said they had sent one or two parcels in the past month.
• Adults in Northern Ireland reported receiving fewer items of post per week than those in the UK as a whole. Four in ten adults in Northern Ireland (41%) said they had received between one and four items in the past month, compared to 30% in the UK overall.

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

1. Ofcom's Communications Market Report provides an overview of communications services across Northern Ireland and monitors key trends in the availability and take-up of digital services across the nation.
2. Face-to-face survey of 3,737 respondents aged 16+ in the UK, with 507 interviews conducted in Northern Ireland. Quotas were set and weighting applied to ensure that the sample was representative of the population of Northern Ireland in terms of age, gender, socio-economic group and geographic location. Fieldwork took place in January and February 2016.
3. The survey sample in Northern Ireland has error margins of approximately +/- 3-6% at the 95% confidence level. In urban and rural areas; survey error margins are approximately +/- 4-7%. 4. In addition to the survey data, this report refers to information from a range of other sources, including data provided to Ofcom by stakeholders.
5. Under the Communications Act 2003 (the Act), Ofcom is required to research markets and to remain at the forefront of technological understanding. Ofcom is also required under section 358 of the Act to publish an annual factual and statistical report.
6. Ofcom's Connected Nations 2015 report showed that cable broadband was available to 27% of premises in Northern Ireland in 2015, fibre broadband was available to 92% of premises, and 77% of premises in Northern Ireland could access superfast broadband. This report will be updated later in 2016, when Ofcom has comparable data relating to the June 2016 availability of cable and fibre broadband services as well as superfast broadband.

CONTACT

James Stinson
Regulatory Affairs Manager
james.stinson@ofcom.org.uk
028 90417515
07834 432056