On-demand life leaves Kiwis stressed
A tsunami of technology appears to have left Kiwis increasingly stressed, with two-thirds of us now complaining there are ‘‘not enough hours in the day’’.
Three-quarters of Kiwis have smartphones and nearly a quarter of us watch an internet television service such as Netflix, according to Roy Morgan’s ‘‘state of the nation’’ survey.
The research firm found that even half of people aged over 65 now had smartphones.
But while 61 per cent of people said they ‘‘needed’’ their smartphones to juggle their work and personal lives, few of us are succeeding.
Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said 67 per cent of the 12,000 Kiwis it surveyed over the past year said there were not enough hours in the day. That was up from 59 per cent in 2012.
‘‘People are constantly feeling like they have just got too much to do and being overwhelmed,’’ Levine said.
That was true at home and at work, with employees feeling totally swamped by email and the need to respond to things quickly.
That was compounded by the fact there was ‘‘not a logical order’’ to the demands people found themselves facing.
Heavy internet users were more likely to feel time-stressed, suggesting there was a connection with technology, Levine said.
Roy Morgan also monitored people’s health through other surveys and had seen ‘‘people’s stress and anxiety just going up to an extraordinary degree’’, she said. ‘‘We know it’s related to unemployment, but these things are all coming together.’’
The impact of internet television on people’s lives could also be mixed, Levine believed.
Netflix was being watched in 264,000 households, while Spark’s Lightbox had 128,000 free or paying subscribers and Sky’s Neon service 22,000 customers, Roy Morgan’s research estimated.
More than 900,000 Kiwis had at least one of the services in their home. Levine put the rapid uptake of internet television down to its ease of use.
But she also believed the amount of content now available ‘‘on demand’’ might be generating unhealthy habits as it broke up people’s natural evening routines.
‘‘As a result we run the risk of starting to do kind of nutty things. We are starting to see more ‘binge viewing’. We hear people talking about staying up for 24 hours watching every [episode of] Downton Abbey. I think there will come a point when we actually realise ‘on-demand’ itself is exhausting.’’
Levine predicted that would lead people to look for more ‘‘curated’’ media experiences, akin to those traditionally provided by daily newspapers.
People still tended to watch both television news and game shows live, Levine said. That supported MediaWorks’ decision to run a game show, Family Feud, ahead of its main 6pm news bulletin, she said.
Roy Morgan conducted its survey by phoning people and then inviting them to participate in a web survey. Only about 4 per cent declined on the basis they did not have easy access to the internet, so that would not greatly bias its results, Levine said.
76 per cent own a smartphone
67 per cent say there are ‘‘not enough hours in the day’’