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The funny thing about surveys is you always end up wondering who exactly participated, particularly when the responses are quirky. Perhaps some of you will think exactly that upon learning that a new study of nearly 900 Americans supposedly reveals just how dependent we've become as a nation on Wi-Fi connectivity. How dependent? Well, three out of every 10 survey takers said they simply can't go even just a full hour without a Wi-Fi connection. Exactly what would happen to them at the 61-minute mark is a mystery -- spontaneous combustion, perhaps? -- but what's interesting is just how important Wi-Fi has become in people's daily lives.
Try this on for size. For as many Starbucks as there are, 39 percent of respondents said they'd be willing to give up coffee for Wi-Fi connectivity, if they had to. Some 57 percent said they'd stay away from Twitter for a month in exchange for wireless Internet, 50 percent would avoid Facebook, and a full 60 percent claimed they couldn't manage a full day without Wi-Fi access before seeking out a connection (therapy might be more appropriate).
"Wi-Fi has become the connectivity equivalent to coffee," muses Michael Hurlston, Senior Vice President, Mobile & Wireless Group, Broadcom. "But legacy Wi-Fi wasn't built to handle the explosion of video consumption and the growing number of wireless devices being used today. To satisfy peoples' dependence on Wi-Fi, we need faster, broader, further-reaching and more energy-efficient Wi-Fi - 5G WiFi."
Suddenly the survey begins to make sense. As Maximum PC's Deputy Editor Gordon Mah Ung observes, this is all "a bit like the cattle industry doing a survey saying American's prefer to chickens." Valid point, don't you think?
Vested interest or not, Broadcom's survey results are interesting, if not amusing for the fact that Wi-Fi has become so damned important in such a relatively short period of time. What are your thoughts on all this? Are you as addicted to Wi-Fi as some of the survey respondents are? How long do you think you could go without wireless connectivity for all of your stationary and mobile devices?
Image Credit: Flickr (khawkins04)
Comments are closed on this article
aarcane
May 16, 2012 at 3:40pm
The problem isn't that people necessarily need wifi. It's that they feel the need to connect to the internet, and Wifi is the only way they know how to accomplish this.
If cellular carriers weren't trying to drive their customers away by overpricing and double-dipping, there would be much less market for "free" or cheap Wifi access.
goodtime
May 16, 2012 at 1:57pm
I'm thinking most of these people don't have their own connection at home or anything like that.
vrmlbasic
May 16, 2012 at 12:43pm
"We need to have an alternative to these expensive data plans. Even 2G speeds would be great."
Yes to the first part, hell no to the second. 3g is absurdly slow, and I've seen what happens when you exceed your data cap on T-Mobile and they reduce you to sub-3g "edge" speed; you're getting beat in speed by a 56k modem at that point.
xmichaelx
May 16, 2012 at 9:01am
I'd love to see these same people asked what WiFi is. I guarantee that the average person at Starbucks can't tell me whether they're using Sbux WiFi or their own 4G (or whatever) connection.
wolfing
May 16, 2012 at 7:40am
couldn't care less, but guess for the myriads of people addicted to Facebook/Twitter, they are slaves to connectivity everywhere they go
Morete
May 16, 2012 at 6:58am
Wi-Fi is less expensive than data plans. I hope that open access Wi-Fi becomes more available throughout the U.S. We need to have an alternative to these expensive data plans. Even 2G speeds would be great.
iheartpcs
May 16, 2012 at 6:51am
These people never hear of a mobile stick? Or cell phone tethering?
Relying on wifi is not a good way to stay connected.
jnite
May 16, 2012 at 6:22am
I have to have wifi at home due to not being close to the modem but that's it. Don't really get the heavy dependence on it outside the home.
