Feel like you spend all your time replying to hundreds of Whatsapp groups? Then it’ll come as no surprise to learn Brits receive a phenomenal number of text messages every year.
A new survey has found the average Briton receives 33,800 mobile phone messages and alerts per year. This works out as 427% more notifications than in 2008, just a decade ago.
And it isn’t just receiving them, we also send 278% more messages.
The survey by Virgin Mobile found we now receive 93 messages or notifications from social apps every day, the equivalent of 33,802 across 365 days.
And we spend the equivalent of almost 22 days a year (that is the full 24 hours) and an average of more than 26 minutes per day, checking our inboxes.
Those aged between 18 and 24 have almost three times more messages to manage and receive around 239 every day. And 87,300 a year.
The study found a contributing factor behind the surge in messages is the boom in group chats on platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
On average, Britons are members of six chat groups, although a small minority (2%) are members of 50 groups or more, rising to 7% of those aged 18 to 24.
One in four adults say they check a WhatsApp message instantly, with this increasing to almost one in three 18 to 24-year-olds.
Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos, a consumer and business psychologist at University College London, said the boom in smartphone use was a positive trend and allowed consumers greater control over their lives.
He said: “In an age where we are constantly surrounded by endless tasks, always flooded with a sea of data, smartphones allow us to manage our lives in a way that suits us.
“From calendars and reminders, to emails and instantaneous access to an encyclopedia of human knowledge, smartphones give us total control, right at our fingertips.”