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)
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you don't need wifi to maintain a relationship pick up the god damn phone and call the person
You know most people would prefer texting, even if they're right next to each other on smartphones!
Or have a 1-nighter.
wtf?
I could see this being said about internet access, but wifi? Nah
Wifi CAN be important, but remember when we didn't have wifi? Yeah, you actually had to sit at this thing called a DESKTOP that sits upon a desk. I use my 3G phone to communicate with anyone if it's that desperate. I rarely use wifi. Relationships? Really? What??? Who cares. Call the person if you want to stay in touch. I prefer my LAN line over any crappy wifi. As supertrek said, texting works just fine too.
I'd rather plug in my utp then miss my morning coffee...
While I am a "millennial" and use WIFI more than four hours daily, these findings are ridiculous. It would hardly, if at all, effect any of my relationships in any meaningful way if there wasn't WIFI. You could even take away the internet and cell phones and it still would only minimally effect my relationships with friends family. I could make do with seeing them in person and an occasional call from a wired phone if I had to. Now if I had to do without even a wired phone things would get difficult. I don't drink coffee.
For some of us Wi-Fi is a necessity. I work in the mining and oil and gas sector and spend much of my time working hundreds or thousands of miles away from home and Wi-Fi devices are my preferred method of communication. It is a lot more expensive to call people long distance on a cell phone then it is to use a Wi-Fi device. However, the loss of Wi-Fi would certainly not cripple my relationships with family and friends, but it would make it a lot less convenient.
Maintaining relationships? Not really, honestly. I use Wi-Fi the most when I'm at home using my laptop or iPhone, or out somewhere and I have access to unsecured networks on my phone. And when there's no Wi-Fi around and I've got my phone, I just use 3G, which is pretty fast with about 3 bars, given the area I'm in has fast 3G (yes, I've been to many areas that give me full 3G but painful speeds). I can text any of my friends from that, or go on facebook for iPhone or the full site if I need to. Wi-Fi in MY life isn't necessary for maintaining personal relationships. Besides, our power went out today (some jerk in the neighborhood hit a power box and knocked out a solid portion of my town's grid), and low and behold, no electricity = no Wi-Fi, which is when I resorted to my 3G service. Wi-Fi is crucial to me in computing though, because I have a laptop and 99.9% of the time I'm connected via our wireless network. Also, referring to the first couple comments, I definitely agree with that. I've got no problem whatsoever dialing anyone I need to get a hold of, and leaving a message if they don't pick up. That's faster sometimes, too. I personally believe that 3G or EDGE is more crucial to relationships because that is the very signal that gives our phones today their true wireless life. Wi-Fi is really just a different breed, kind of. It's wireless networking, pure and simple. It's something we take for granted, (most) of us don't have it everywhere we go. To answer the initial question, Wi-Fi IS important to me, it's a very nice privilege, but not in terms of maintaining relationships (btw I see my friends more in person that I do online).
I could see this being said about internet access, but wifi? Nah
Yeah, pretty much the only thing I can think of.
If not being able to communicate via Wi-Fi would seriously affect a relationship, then it probably isn't much of a relationship to begin with!
you don't need wifi to maintain a relationship pick up the god damn phone and call the person
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.
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.
I really believe that the meaning of relationships especially MEANINGFUL ones need to be looked upon again. It amazes me how little people ever share ANYTHING meaningful beyond words and call it something close or special.
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.
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.
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.
In related news; computers are the new link for lawsuits claiming their the reason for obesity and not fast food
id rather give up wifi
there is allways good old cat5
You know most people would prefer texting, even if they're right next to each other on smartphones!
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.
I can not agree more with the top posts and wish there was a button to give like 99 thumbs up in one shot.
I am going to go out on a limb here and guess most of the new internet enabled devices people have are cellular phones anyway. So they can almost all work over the cell network and texting is generally FREE.
To add to this, I wonder if the people who took the survey are under the impression that "wifi" means ALL wireless traffic inducing the cellular networks. I can not imagine that many people would feel there social life would end without WiFi.
I know I can live without wifi(Don't get me wrong, we have 3 access points here for full coverage, but I rarely use it.) and cellular the good old phone and wired networks still work fine for me.
What did we ever do without WiFi? LOL
Even in this connected world, we still have snail mail. LOL
Surveys like these make me think that people who responded like this should willingly give up their computers for one day a week, or one day a month, even. Heaven forbid that they actually discover that the person with whom they are relating has a physical body, or that they can actually live for a day without checking the facebook page of people they "relate" with, or that there is a real world out there in which you are able to enjoy something like taking a walk or hiking.
I wouldn't specifically say "Wi-Fi" but rather, broadband Internet access. When we were looking to buy a house outside of the city, we wanted it to be as rural as possible (in the mountains, actually) but it absolutely had to have broadband--real broadband, not high-latency satalite. We saw a lot of beautiful places, but no broadband access was a deal breaker. Finally, we found a beautiful, custom-built house in the mountains right on the edge of Comcast's cable modem service area. After we bought it, but before we moved in, the first thing I did was wire the entire house for cable and Internet. Retrofitting an existing home with structured wiring is a huge chore... but totally worth it.
Anyway, the answer is yes, broadband Internet access is important (for my family: imperative).
Well honey if your Wi is not equal to my Fi this is over.
Well honey if your Wi is not equal to my Fi this is over.
Honey replied: pppfffft my my Wi is BETTER than your Fi!
Timbuktu is a small impoverished city in west Africa, chances are if you have relatives here they not going to have internet access...
@mrmez
'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.'
actually they do, it's called facetime........ still not going help you if your stuck in Timbuktu
I don't need wi-fi to keep contact with my relatives. I need a cabled connection.
I dislike the term "Wi-fi". The term is so trendy and popularized, that it doesn't really have a clear enough definition. Is it any wireless LAN? Do cell phones count (they're wireless)? Does it include your home WLAN or just Starbucks's et. al. WLANs?
Can I live without WLAN? Yes. Does it make my life easier? Yes. If I didn't have it, it would just motivate me to actually get off my butt and wire my house with cat6 like I've been meaning to for quite a while now. Then I wouldn't really notice it being gone.
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.
You mean FaceTime?
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.
That is blasphemy! Do not bring your evil ways into my world!
"Would you rather give up WiFi or Coffee?"
Easy, Coffee.