As part of its 30 years of mobile phones in Australia celebrations, Telstra commissioned a survey of mobile phone usage in Australia. One interesting stat: 30 per cent of Gen Y respondents check their mobile phone as soon as they wake. How quickly do you reach for your phone?
Picture by Jeremy Foo
It’s not surprising that this sort of behaviour is common amongst younger people for whom mobiles have always been a given, but given how common the use of a mobile phone as an alarm is, I’m guessing that’s not just Gen Y behaviour. So here’s the question:
Feel free to expand on your morning mobile routine in the comments.
Senectus
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:20 PMImmediately, and that’s not including the fact that my phone is my alarm clock… :-P
Matte
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:02 PMSame here. iPhone as alarm clock
Vance
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:21 PMYep iphone is my alarm also. So easy just to have it set to 6:00 on work days and no alarm on weekends
LyndonL
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 7:35 PMEugh the biggest thing that pisses me off about iPhone users is that.
“I check my iPhone”…. No! You check your phone!!!!!! I don’t say “I check my Galaxy S” – I say “I check my phone”….
It’s ALL about the image with Apple users. EUGH *TEARS HAIR OUT*
Anthony
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 4:13 PM+1
Christian
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:03 PM+1 to the alarm
Benno
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:07 PM+1 to alarm. I probably wouldn’t check it until breakfast otherwise.
Sam D
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:27 PMSame here. So by turning your alarm off, your phone is unlocked – I can already see my unread email count there.
TSH
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 11:01 AMIt’s my alarm clock, so I end up “checking” it at least three times every morning before I get up! (snooze FTW)
Elly Hart
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:30 PMI get up, shower, and jump straight onto the computer. When I have my computer, I don’t need my phone. But I do check my phone just before I go to bed.
Gen X Kath
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:55 PMWhen I have my phone, I don’t need my computer. :)
Confused
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:36 PMWhy would you check your phone first thing? If it rings it makes a noise, if you get a message it makes a noise – that should wake you. I guess maybe some people mute their phones at night but then if you do get an emergency call you defeat the purpose of having a mobile phone which is instant communication. I suppose that being a volunteer in the emergency services I have my phone on at all times so maybe I am just used to being woken at all hours.
Ruby
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 10:25 AMI always put my phone on silent at night.
Chris
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:56 PMI generally hit the computer/phone before I shower, only because both are on the way to the shower.
grumpy
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:58 PMWhy do you need to “check” your phone? If somebody call/sms you it will ring. If phone does not ring then you do not have to pay attention. Or I’m missing something?
Sam
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:22 PMI can’t agree more. Even with “quiet” hours on my phone, no one that is actually important to me is going to call/sms in the middle of the night, and if they do it’ll be an emergency.
Twitter/Facebook and the like is worth having a look at some point in the morning, but I’m not that self absorbed to think that seeing what DM or private messages that might have come in overnight can’t wait for an hour or two.
Stove
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:28 PMMy phone is on mute overnight. When I get up I’ll give it a quick check to see if anything urgent has come up, and then continue on as normal.
The other matter is that when I say ‘check my phone’, I mostly mean ‘check email on my phone’. It’s not used for actual phonecalls or texts that much.
April
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 10:22 AMIt’s very rare that I turn my phone off mute, so I “check” my phone a couple of times a day and respond to anything relevant.
Like a lot of others, I use my phone as my alarm. Once unlocked it shows me the weather for the day as well as my agenda, so I know what to wear and how soon I need to be in the office :)
Vincenzo
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:06 PMMy iPhone is also my alarm. First things I check are the weather and traffic.
JT
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:09 PMYes,
we do wear less watches
-or only for fashion statement-
and don’t have clocks anymore. The Mobile Phone is all that.
light487
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:33 PMI have an iPod Touch and a separate flip-style mobile. If the LED is flashing, there is a missed call or SMS pending. If not, no reason to check it. As for the iTouch.. I only connect it if I want to get an update or new app, however it is nice to have my gmail emails come through automatically when I forget to switch it to Airplane mode (to save battery).
Dan
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:43 PMYep, I check my iPhone first thing. Sure, it serves my alarm clock too… but usually after I have snoozed the alarm once or twice I use it to check my emails and the news, as well as any new football articles. It’d be pretty ignorant of me to try and claim that I would easily be able to break this habit… but in my defence, a lot of it has to do with the fact that doing those things on my phone helps me wake up and start to feel more alert – more so than just forcing myself into the shower does. On the weekends sometimes I can swap the phone for a book, but often that’s a bit too involved for my first 15 minutes of wake time :P
a.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 4:10 PMI’m the same. Forcing myself into a shower before I’ve woken up usually just results in me taking a ridiculously long shower. I like to read something or play a quick brain training game to get my head working first. Before having a smart phone I would grab a nearby book first thing and read a page before getting up.
Parker
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:23 PMMy phone is my alarm, but otherwise I don’t check things like Twitter, Facebook and emails until I’m on the bus/train to work.
JAB_au
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:31 PMIt may be the first thing I do, but at least i’m still comfortably in bed
Lance
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:46 PMMy phone is my alarm as well,but most the time i forget about it and leave on the floor beside the bed till i remember/hear it ring
Damien
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 4:28 PMChecking my iPhone means getting pissed off at work emails. So, I don’t do it until I’m sitting on the train and heading into the city. That way, I’m ramping up into work mode with no chance of swearing in front of my small children. :)
Ben
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 4:31 PMI… turn on my TV… doesn’t anyone do that anymore?
nebarik
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 5:10 PMwhats a tv?
seriously though, does anyone actually watch broadcast aussie tv? i havent for about 4 years now (since i moved out from parents, who always have it on for some reason)
dont get me wrong, i have a 40inch monitor in my lounge room connected to a media server, but i dont own a antenna of any sort :D
Caitlin
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:44 PMI haven’t had a television since I moved out three years ago, why would I bother? All I watched was ABC and they’ve got iView. This sentence is avoiding the topic of piracy. So I (somehow) have a computer full of TV, and a projector.
Virus__
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 5:32 PMMy phone is my alarm. I usually sleep through a text message if I get one in the morning, I never put the thing on silent unless where I am requires me too.
Mathew
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 5:34 PMThe second my eyes open, I have already reached over to grab my phone. I check it almost before I am awake :P
Dread
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 6:28 PMMy Blackberry is my alarm so I check email etc before the toast & vegemite
mark b
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 8:22 PMis checking my ipad the same thing? i’m never checking for calls/sms .. just emails & posts..
smurfydog
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 8:30 PMMy phone is one of my alarms (I need two) but I don’t usually look at it until I’m at work.
I like to get to work early and use the time to have a coffee/ciggie and use that time to check overnight emails/news/tweets etc.
Nick
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 10:02 PMI go straight to restocking shelves in tiny tower : /
Jacqueline
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 10:48 PMI use mine as an alarm clock & then snuggle back into bed with it & check in on my usual sites until I’m awake enough to get going.
Blake
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 11:52 AMEmbarrassingly quickly.
I turn off my alarm, decide how long I want to doze. (usually 5-8 minutes) set the timer (not the snooze for some reason) then once that goes off I wake up and page through my emails and Facebook.
The Facebook stuff is the embarrassing part I suppose.
Caitlin
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:46 PMMy phone is my alarm, and I cannot wake up in the space of less than half an hour, so I snooze it five times and check the news, emails and facebook (in that order) until it runs out of snoozes and I have to get out of bed.
Matt
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 12:32 AMwell i dont consider turning my alarm off “checking my phone” my hand has adapted to turning it off with my eyes shut :P
Anyway i dont check my phone till i begin my commute to uni to keep track of the time. No one calls me in the morning anymore, and if i were to get a call or tect, it usulally wont be till about 11.