Our company’s Leisure eNewsletter and this blog have been giving continuing coverage to the disruptive impact digital technology is having on location-based entertainment (LBE) including data on how the use of digital technology both at home and on mobile screens is taking leisure time and discretionary spending market share away from LBEs.
Now along comes research that indicates a new type of disruption – that the use of digital technology, and more specifically the smartphone, is actually decreasing the fun many people have during the leisure time when you aren’t on the phone, included at LBEs.
Researchers at Kent State University surveyed a random sample of 454 undergraduates and examined how different types of cell phone users experience daily leisure. They measured each person’s total daily smartphone use, personality, and experience of daily leisure. Students were categorized into three distinct groups based on similar patterns of smartphone use and personality: low-use extroverts, low-use introverts, and a high-use group who averaged more than 10 hours per day of smartphone time (about 25% of the sample).
Compared to the two low-use groups, this high-use group experienced considerably more leisure distress – feeling uptight, stressed and anxious during free time.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the low-use extrovert group averaged only three hours of smartphone use per day and showed the least boredom and distress and greatest tendency to challenge themselves during leisure time.
The researchers suggest that for all those who feel the need to check their phones incessantly, the issue may not be that they enjoy their phones more than others do; rather, the obsessive habit could demonstrate a need to stay connected, an obligation to remain in the know — which ultimately spills over into their leisure time.
“In our previously published research, we found that high-frequency cell phone users often described feeling obligated to remain constantly connected to their phones,” one of the researchers said. “This obligation was described as stressful, and the present study suggests the stress may be spilling over into their leisure.”
So it’s bad enough that smartphones are taking leisure time and spending entertainment market share away from LBEs. Now we learn that at least for one segment of the population, the highly addicted smartphone user, it is contaminating their enjoyment of other leisure time activities, including time spent in an LBE and accordingly decreasing the perceived value of attending.
