Turks spend over 400 minutes on phone each month

NEVŞEHİR

Turkish mobile phone users spend 422 minutes speaking on the phone on average each month, a study by the Ankara Analitik Araştırma Merkezi has shown.

The study that covered 53,150 participants from 33 countries revealed that the corresponding figure for Europe was 231 minutes on average.

As of the end of 2017, there were a total of 77.8 million mobile phone subscribers in Turkey, which has a population of 80.8 million.

According to the study, 78 percent of Turkish mobile phone users feel the urge to check their phones during the day even if they are actually not called or texted.

The corresponding figures for Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany are 64 percent, 52 percent, 47 percent, 42 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

Eighty-five percent of phone users in Turkey check phones at night for missed calls and missed messages, while the corresponding figure for Europe is only 48 percent.

Some 28 percent of Turks check their phones first thing in the morning, according to the study, while some 61 percent check their phones within the first five minutes after waking up. Twenty-three percent of mobile users check their phones just before going to bed, while 52 percent sometime within the last five minutes before going to sleep.

Bülent Öztürk from Cappadocia University, who coordinated the research, told state-run Anadolu Agency that there is a reverse relationship between phone use and income level.

“The higher the income level, the lower the phone use,” he said.

“We tend to believe that people use phones to communicate with other people to reduce stress level. However, this actually points to the fact that we are not engaged in social activities and we do not have hobbies to enjoy,” he added.