Study Finds People Are ‘Practically Addicted’ To Email

When it comes to email, people just can’t seem to get enough. That’s the main takeaway form a new study conducted by Adobe. Sure, the conventional wisdom might be that people are sick of g...
Study Finds People Are ‘Practically Addicted’ To Email
Written by Chris Crum
  • When it comes to email, people just can’t seem to get enough. That’s the main takeaway form a new study conducted by Adobe. Sure, the conventional wisdom might be that people are sick of getting so much email, but the reality paints a different picture. People are checking their email constantly.

    Adobe surveyed over 400 white collar workers in the U.S., 18 and older, about their email use.

    “We found that Americans are practically addicted to email, checking it around the clock no matter where they are or what they’re doing,” says Kristin Naragon, director of email solutions at Adobe. “In fact, more than half of millennials check email from the bathroom! On average, survey respondents report using email six hours a day, or 30+ hours a week. Nine of 10 respondents say they check personal email at work and work email from home. More than one third report having multiple personal accounts.”

    When you think about how we’re constantly carrying around our mobile devices and that these tend to include email apps and their associated push notifications, the findings really aren’t that surprising, but are a reminder of just how engaged people are with their email accounts.

    “Email is a cornerstone of workplace culture as well as a powerful tool for productivity and collaboration — thirty-five percent say they prefer communicating with colleagues via email, putting it on par with face-to-face collaboration,” says Naragon. “But, the pervasiveness of email across all life activities is even more striking. We found that outside of work, Americans most commonly check their email while watching TV (70%), from bed (52%), on vacation (50%), while on the phone (43%), from the bathroom (42%) and even—most dangerously—while driving (18%).”

    The study also found that millennials are more likely to check work email outside of normal work hours and that a third are comfortable using emojis to communicate with a direct manager or senior exec. 88% use a smartphone to check email. 70% check email from bed, while 57% check from the bathroom and 27% (admittedly) while driving.

    A study from Yesmail found that consumers are opening and engaging with emails more than they ever have before, and that the “never active” subscriber segment fell to its lowest percentage ever.

    We looked at another study from Constant Contact this week looking at open rate factors. Check that out here.

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