These days, most people are constantly tethered to their Internet-enabled smartphones, giving them the ability to access e-mail accounts and send text messages at all hours from virtually anywhere. But Datamation takes a closer look at new study that illustrates how this ‘always on’ mentality can lead to some serious problems.
Tweeting and social networks are increasingly popular, but good, old e-mail continues to be a key communications tool for U.S. workers, who often use it to an extreme, according to a new report.
In the second annual Mobile Messaging Study by Osterman Research, more than 95 percent of respondents said they still check e-mail after work hours. That can lead to some potentially awkward—if not downright dangerous—behavior.
A large majority of the survey’s respondents “continue to engage in risky and inappropriate behaviors at the same rate as last year, with 76 percent admitting to driving while texting (DWT), 78 percent admitting to checking messages in the bathroom and 11 percent admitting to doing so during an ‘intimate moment,'” according to the report.
The key results are close to last year’s report, both of which were commissioned by software company Neverfail, a provider of continuous availability and disaster recovery services.
Still, some changes have taken place since Osterman and Neverfail last looked at the topic. The survey found that e-mail addiction during air travel this year is down 11 percent, with just 30 percent of respondents now admitting they send e-mails from mobile devices while in flight.