Flemish use, dependence on smartphones growing - survey

The use of digital services via smartphones in particular has continued to increase strongly among Flemish people. Dependency on services, apps and smartphones is growing strongly, according to a survey from research institute IMEC of over 2,300 Flemish people. People in their 20s and 30s have particularly been hit by what IMEC calls "digibesitas."

Awareness around the phenomenon is increasing. Six out of 10 Flemish smartphone users impose rules on themselves to keep smartphone use under control. This is however sometimes difficult to sustain. IMEC has therefore expanded its imec.digimeter research with a 'Mobile DNA' app that enables people to map out their media usage in detail and to help their behaviour based on the app’s insights.

Increasing use of paid services 

The use of Netflix, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram have risen strongly from 2016 to 2017, from 15 percent to 21, 25 percent to 31 percent, 48 percent to 54 percent and 25 percent to 30 percent, respectively, according to Professor Lieven De Marez, part of IMEC's ​​MICT research group at the University of Ghent. More and more people are making use of paid services. The increasing popularity of Netflix is ​​one example of this, but 19 percent of respondents also stated that they pay for online music via a streaming or download service. This is an increase of 6 percent compared to the year before.

The way in which the Flemish use these services is also evolving, with the smartphone and laptop winning the game. Although almost everyone has access to multiple screens at home (from game consoles and computers to smartphones, tablets and TVs), the imec.digimeter respondents indicated that they find their smartphone (37%) and computer (24%) the most indispensable. This applies to a much lesser extent for TV sets (12%) and tablets (6%). These differences are even more pronounced among people in their 20s: 54% think smartphones are the most indispensable.

Too long on social media

More and more people are finding they spend too much time on social media: compared with 2016, the number of people on social media has risen to 34 percent, with the percentage jumping to 52 percent for teenagers, 56 for people in their twenties and 42 percent for those in their thirties. About 31 percent of those in their 20s and again 31 percent of those in their 30s feel they have to keep in constant contact with work through the use of new digital applications. Another 41 percent of Flemish people believe that digital applications have penetrated deep into their personal lives. Here too, 20 year olds (51%) and 30 year olds (50%) score above average.

The Mobile DNA app -the first of its kind worldwide according to IMEC- will be available free for Android users from 25 January. It will monitor the media use of its users for two weeks and then display that data in a personal mobile DNA profile.