It’s been a good month for surveys! This time, Pew Internet has released a report showing that Internet surfing on mobile devices has increased dramatically since 2009. Here’s the official findings:
Six in ten cell phone owners (63%) now go online using their mobile phones, an eight-point increase from the 55% of cell owners who did so at a similar point in 2012 and a two-fold increase over the 31% who did so in 2009. We call these individuals “cell internet users,” and they include anyone who:
Uses the internet on their cell phone (60% of cell owners do this), or
Uses email on their cell phone (52% of cell owners do this)Taken together, 63% of cell owners do one or both of these things, and are classified as cell internet users. Since 91% of Americans are cell phone owners, this means that 57% of all Americans now go online using a mobile phone. The steady increase in cell phone internet usage follows a similar growth trajectory for smartphone ownership. Over half of all adults (56%) now own a smartphone, and 93% of these smartphone owners use their phone to go online.
My response to theses is a simple, respectful “Duh!”
We are a Mobile Nation
To be serious, I respect the research that Pew has done here—someone has to make it official—but I think that we all saw this coming a long time ago. We’ve been an “Internet Nation” for maybe a decade, but it seems like now we’ve become a “Mobile Nation.”
This shift begs a lot of questions: how will the Internet evolve going forward in a primarily mobile digital world? How will our nation change as we become increasingly mobile in our digital consumption? How will the Church step into this expanding mission field?
Let’s see if we can come up with some answers.
The Internet Gets Personal
To me, the greatest difference between computer browsing and mobile browsing is that mobile browsing seems inherently more personal. True, there are many ways to “share” what you’re looking at on a mobile device, but the screen size, the way the devices are held, the almost ubiquitous pair of earbuds connecting device to user—it all seems to increase the individuality of Internet browsing. This could be incredibly power and positive. If device security continues to be increased with biometrics, encryption, and such, couldn’t we double down on using our phones and tablets as digital wallets and expand that use to legal identification and such? What if, in some distant future, voting could be done via a secure app or mobile site? What if our “beloved” republic could become more democratic as our mobile Internet culture lends itself to direct participation in government?
And yet, an increase in the individualization of Internet surfing also increases the danger of isolation on the Internet, which places the user in greater personal danger. I’m not sure, but I doubt that many people are tempted to delve into viewing pornography while sitting at the family computer in full view of their family or on a laptop in the middle of class. (I’m not saying that such things haven’t happened or won’t happen but that it’s unlikely that these environments will lead to an individuals first dip into the cesspool of sexual entertainment degradation.) Viewing the Internet personally turns into viewing it privately which can give the individual the false sense that no one is watching and no one will be hurt. This, sadly, is a widely believed myth.
The Church: Digital but not Mobile
In the past few years, the US Church (even the Western Church) has become increasingly digital. We’ve been doing our best to make up for lost time, and yet how many churches have ignored the fact that the largest growing audience on the Internet is a mobile one? My church does not have a native mobile app—we can’t afford to pay a developer and don’t presently have anyone who can develop one in-house. However, earlier this year, we redesigned our website to it responsive, thus giving our mobile users a better user experience. One of my goals for next year is a web app that will allow mobile users a quick and easy way to access our blogs, sermons, videos, and other “flipped church” style material.
The Internet is being squeezed into more mobile devices than ever before. Individuals are viewing the Internet in a more personal and intimate way more often each day than ever before. What better plane upon which to meet people with the Gospel than a foot away from their face? If the Internet is going mobile, becoming more personal, then we need to do the same.
Does your church have a mobile Internet strategy?
[via Pew Internet | HT CNN]
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