Our mobiles buzz us 93 times a day

IT IS no wonder many of us are addicted to our mobile phones – they’re being flooded with 33,800 messages and alerts a year, a survey has revealed.

That means we are dealing with an average of 93 messages and notifications every day, be they from friends, family or an app.

Checking all this information takes up a lot of our time – about 22 full days a year, or 26 minutes a day. The survey found a contributing factor behind the surge in messages is the rise of group chats on platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.

Britons are members of six chat groups on average, while 2 per cent are members of 50 groups or more, rising to 7 per cent of those aged 18 to 24.

Those in this age group have phones that buzz far more often, the Virgin Mobile poll found.

They have almost three times as many notifications to manage, receiving 239 messages and alerts a day, or 87,200 a year. On average, mobile phone users are being sent 427 per cent more messages and notifications than they were a decade ago.

Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos, a consumer psychologist at the University College London, argued the trend 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.’