Wi-Fi Seen as Important Part of Relationships
Which would you rather give up, Wi-Fi or coffee?
The internet has changed a lot of things. Whether it's the social networking craze that allows people to stay in touch with relatives in Timbuktu, or the fact that people like me can make a living writing for a tech website and not even have to leave the house, it's safe to say the internet has made a significant impact on many of our lives. In fact, it seems the internet has become so important to people, we would find it difficult to maintain relationships if we didn't have Wi-Fi. With the popularity of mobile devices and laptops, more internet-capable machines connect through Wi-Fi rather than the traditional cabled connection.
According to a survey conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of the Wi-Fi Alliance, 64 percent of U.S. respondents and 89 percent of Chinese respondent said it would be nearly impossible to maintain relationships with many friends without Wi-Fi; a further 44 percent of American respondents and 82 percent of Chinese respondents said the same applies to family relationships.
The survey was based on information provided by 1,000 U.S. millennials (respondents ages 17 to 29) and 400 millennials in China, Japan and Korea. Two thirds of U.S. respondents and four fifths of those in China said they now spend more time on Wi-Fi than watching telly. Almost 70 percent of respondents spend more than four hours on Wi-Fi each day.
"These polling results are a strong reflection of both the social and technological orientation of young adults around the world today," commented Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates. "Interactive digital devices are fundamental to how millennials spend their time and connect with family and friends, and have become more important than older, more passive forms of entertainment like television."
Further evidence of how much value people place on Wi-Fi comes in the form of 75 percent of U.S. respondents admitting they'd be more grumpy if they had to go a week without Wi-Fi than if they had to spend a week without coffee.
How important is Wi-Fi to you? Do you find it plays an important role in your maintaining relationships? Let us know in the comments below!
Read more on the results of the survey here.
Source: WiFi Alliance (via HotHardware)

Yeah, pretty much the only thing I can think of.
Even crazier, you can actually talk to someone face to face!!!
I know, its NUTS!
Im sure they will have an app for that soon.
+1 internets to you, sir.
Superficial relationships are BS period. The drama that can unfold from them is endless and a waste of time.
Time spent TOGETHER this is the KEY to a REAL MEANINGFUL relationship.
How about when those who mean a lot to me live in a different city/country?
I don't drink coffee (Witch! Witch! Burn him at the stake!), but I'm perfectly fine with going out when I can and using a phone.
We all know that the Wi-Fi Alliance is the most reliable source. In a way this is like Apple showing us research that proofs Apple computers are more desirable then generic pc's.
A lesson in statistics including some basic math 64% out of those 1000 that's 640 (1000/100*64)so this far we learned that they found 640 people that thinks wi-fi is that important however it does not tell us how many people where disqualified from the survey or how many did not find Wi-Fi that important and most important other then the age of the ones partaking in the survey we know nothing about them. Lets say those 1000 where asked to partake in the survey at their local computer retailer after buying a Wi-Fi router or adapter and made a chance of winning back the complete amount of their spending on the Wi-Fi router or adapter they just bought (its not uncommon to be able to win something in trade for taking part in a survey) now how many of those 640 would be capable of being objective?, add percentage "x" to those 1000 (where x could be a multitude of that 1000 really) and wonder what the statistics would look like if they where not excluded. I used to have a job over the summer years ago where i actually got payed to take surveys and go payed by the amount of surveys i got filled out not by the our or day.
The above is fairly positive since the numbers would really start to inflate even more if you ask the right questions at student dorms that only have Wi-Fi connections (no LAN or room by room land lines specially in more remote areas).
Statistics are a way to make your point and if you control the product the targeted audience and are the one that decides who to exclude you can pretty much end up with any number you like.
Now for as far as the lesson in statistic goes we cant judge on these numbers without knowing the exact questions asked and the percentages scored per question and the number of people excluded and even then its for a huge part up to us to make a conclusion the bigger the the group of people that takes part in the survey the more reliable the outcome gets but statistics are marketing period.
there is allways good old cat5
Me and my roommates do this, rather than go to each other rooms.
We only talk over xbox live mic, and when we scavenge for food in the kitchen.
Both of us would rather have the coffee.