The Results for the Smartphone Survey are IN!
A couple of weeks ago, we conducted an informal survey of smartphone usage by our readers. We were curious to see if you are 50 or more years of age, own a smartphone, and what type of functions you use on your phone.
Here are the results from the survey:
- 85% of the people who responded are 50 years or more old
- 90% of the people who responded own a smartphone
As shown in the infographic, the three primary uses of the smartphone are for making and receiving calls, checking and responding to emails, and texting.
Other Responses
We were most interested in the responses we received for the “other, please specify” function category on our survey. Here are some highlights from what we discovered:
- Reading: newspapers, magazines, books, newsletters.
- Services: Uber, Lyft, home lighting & security monitoring systems, parking garages locations, bus service, food delivery, etc.
- Calendar: schedule, appointments, planning
- Tools: alarm, timers, flashlight, magnification, calculator, tracking mileage, and invoicing
- Camera: video and picture (taking and sharing)
- Internet: searching for information, access to the Cloud
The “other smartphone functions list” shows that smartphones have become an integral part of our lives. They provide us with the tools to do our jobs or run our small businesses, occupy our time when we are bored, document our life via pictures or video, learn something new, or order products or services—all within the palm of our hands. We have come to rely on such a small device to help us throughout each day.
Internet
Let’s discuss the “Internet” function a little bit further. Our respondents said that they use the Internet function on their smartphones to search for information related to their jobs, businesses, and to access Cloud storage.
Is the “search” Internet function also being used to find a new job?
Are you using mobile job search apps?
The Cloud provides a quick and easy way for you to save your cover letter and resume so that you can access and revise them for a prospective job opening or employer at a moment’s notice. Are you doing that?
Are you using your smartphone during your job search?
As a Baby Boomer, are you missing out on job opportunities?
We want to know if Baby Boomers are using these tools, or if it is just the younger generations.
Next week, we will publish another survey: What are Your Career Plans for 2016? The survey will ask what your 2016 career plans are and what tools you are going to use to make those changes.
If you want to make sure that you participate in our next survey, sign up for our mailing list. That way, you can participate in this and future surveys ,as well as find out the results very quickly.
We want to hear from you!
This post was written by Elizabeth Rabaey, a Baby Boomer herself, is a creative with a love for details. She has spent over 20 plus years working for environmental engineering and consulting companies providing project management and technical assistance on many innovative engineering projects. She has applied creative, literary and scientific skills to these projects to help the client maintain a profitable business operation and protect humans, health and the environment. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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The survey results provided a nice reminder of the possibilities for using a smartphone in a job search. Would like to know more about the use of job search apps. Have recently become aware that LinkedIn offers services for both job seekers and recruiters/hiring managers.
Mike,
I find that having Twitter on my phone makes it so much easier to track what is going on with individuals and companies. I have not played around with any of the LinkedIn apps other than their main one.