• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 8, 2009

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, introducing it's new report on The Mobile Difference in today's society, notes that in the early 1980s, Americans started spending more time on the telephone. From 1980 to 1987, the number of minutes spent on the phone increased by 24%, three times the rate of population growth. Though fax machines and the personal computing revolution might have spurred growth voice traffic, not more than 10% of the growth.

The cause was determined to be the telephone answering machine, in just 28% of homes in 1987. However, these new devices meant once-missed calls were returned and completed calls encouraged more calling. The answering machine served as an accelerant into Americans' existing calling patterns.

In a similar way, says the author, mobile internet access is drawing people into more frequent online use.  This finding is the cornerstone the Project's study, finding that39% of the adult population have seen the frequency of their online use grow as their reliance on mobile devices has increased.

Across those groups, there is a lot of variation on what these changes mean to users. Some find this extra connectivity a platform for self expression. Others are not entirely positive about ICTs' (Information and Communication Technology) impacts on their lives.

In addition, there is 61% of the adult population who do not feel the pull of mobility further into the digital world. Across the groups that make up this part of the population, several have a lot of technology at hand and have seen their tech assets grow in recent years. Yet ICTs remain on the periphery in their lives, suggesting that:

• Some adult Americans reach a plateau in their technology use
• Some groups are content with their distant relationship to technology
• Others feel even a little modern gadgetry is too much

The study places ICT users into 10 groups and, notwithstanding variation across the groups, the groups fit into two baskets, with the groups' collective judgments on mobility being the pivot point. Here's a look at how each of the groups uses ICTs and group members' attitudes about them, according to the report.

The first five groups include the 39% of American adults who make up the basket of groups "Motivated by Mobility." For these groups, growth in frequency of online use is linked to increasing broadband adoption, and to positive and improving attitudes about how mobile access makes them more available to others:

• Digital Collaborators: 8% of adults use information gadgets to collaborate with others and share their creativity with the world. The typical Digital Collaborator is in his late 30s and has had years of online experience, and can almost always get access to the internet with "always on" broadband connection or "always present" mobile device. With this connectivity, they collaborate with others online to express themselves creatively, and to develop something new.
• Ambivalent Networkers: 7% of adults heavily use mobile devices to connect with others and entertain themselves, are confident in their ability to manage gadgets, and would be hard pressed to do without mobile access. With a handheld device at the ready, they stay in touch with their family and friends and gather intelligence about what is going on in the world. They are the most frequent cell phone texters of any group. Some message content might be about current affairs, but a portion is about culture, as they will watch videos or listen to music using online access tools, mobile or otherwise.
• Media Movers: 7% of adults use online access to seek out information nuggets, and these nuggets make their way through these users' social networks via desktop and mobile access. Social uses for ICTs draw most of the attention of this group. Typically a mid-30s male, he may have a variety of devices ready at an instant to record something and send it along to a friend or post it online. They more likely than average to use their cell phone for functions such as texting, taking pictures, or playing games. Attachment to their cell phone has deepened over time,
• Roving Nodes: 9% of adults who use their mobile devices to connect with others and share information with them. A Roving Node is a woman in her late 30s who is rarely without her smart phone, using it to chat, checking email or fielding a text message. This group is highly dependent on ICTs as a result of using ICTs to manage busy lives and stay in touch with others. They are much less likely than preceding groups to blog or manage their own web pages.
• Mobile Newbies: 8% of adults who lack robust access to the internet, but they like their cell phones. A typical Mobile Newbie is about 50 years old, a novice with modern ICTs, but is wading into the waters thanks to a new cell phone, perhaps as a handy tool for staying in touch with others or for safety reasons. Just four in ten use the internet and only occasionally send a text message or snap a picture with their handheld device.

Brief profiles of the other 61%, the "Stationary Media Majority," are included here:

• Desktop Veterans: 13% of adults are dedicated to wireline access to digital information, and like how it opens up the pipeline to information for them. They have high rates of broadband adoption and participate online, but they treat the cell phone as if it were equipped only with voice capability. They use the cell to make phone calls, but even then the cell phone takes a backseat to their reliance on the landline. They are average in terms of cell phone adoption, but well below average in their use of non-voice data applications such as text messaging or wirelessly browsing the internet.
• Drifting Surfers: 14% of adults that are light users, despite having a lot of ICTs, and say they could do without modern gadgets and services. This group of adults has a 8 years of online experience but are infrequent users of the internet. Although they rely about equally on their landline and cell for phone calls, they don't find the extra availability afforded by cell phones very alluring, and would not find it hard to give up their cell phone.
• Information Encumbered: 10% of adults who feel overwhelmed by information and inadequate to troubleshoot modern ICTs. mainly men in their mid-50s, this has the means and experience to engage with the information superhighway, but the pipeline of digital information is increasingly a burden. Three-quarters have a cell phone and half have high-speed at home, Nearly two-thirds need help in getting their technology to work, and do not credit the internet or cell phone with any improvement in their personal productivity or how they do their jobs.
• The Tech Indifferent: 10% of adults who are unenthusiastic about the internet and cell phone. The Tech Indifferent are, as a group, older than the others and seem to have established patterns of getting information or staying in touch with family and friends that do not rely on modern tech. There is little reason to think that many in this group will ever embrace modern ICTs, concludes the report.
• Off the Network: 14% of adults are neither cell phone users nor internet users.They are the oldest and least affluent group.

The study concludes that most "motivated by mobility" groups have positive and improving attitudes about cell phones, while remaining groups have tepid and deteriorating attitudes about them.

• 66% of those in the "motivated by mobility" groups report that it would be very hard to do without their cell phones.
• Only 21% of the "stationary media majority" groups say that it would be very hard to do without their cell phones.
• "Motivated by mobility" groups collectively showed an improvement in cell phone attitudes by 20% from 2006 to 2007
• Again, in stark contrast, the "stationary media majority" groups collectively saw a 64% decrease in attitudes about cell phones from 2006 to 2007

For a more complete presentation, with charts, on The Mobile Difference from PEW, please visit here.