sleeping with a mobile phone

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “percentage of adults [in the U.S.] who sleep with their cellphone” is 67% of men and 64% of women.  Shockingly grim nocturnal statistics!  Is there really this many nerds, work slaves, needy clingers, and devoted bureaucrats?

The Wall Street Journal’s figures come from a recent Pew Research Center report on cell phone use.  The Wall Street Journal essentially reproduced a table from the Pew report.[1]  The only table section that the Wall Street Journal omitted was a breakdown by household income.  Perhaps the Wall Street Journal isn’t interested in income distribution, or perhaps some editor thought readers might get confused by the figures.  The figures show that households with income less than $30,000 a year had the highest share of adults sleeping with their cell phone (73%).  As is conventional practice among elite media from the print era, the Wall Street Journal did not link to the Pew report.

Both the Wall Street Journal and the Pew report have grossly misrepresented the figures.  The table in the Pew report is headed “who sleeps with their cell phone?”  An excellent feature of Pew Research Center reports is that they provide considerable documentation on data collection methods and instruments. This Pew report includes an appended list of the survey questions and summary statistics analyzed in the report. The question reported as “who sleeps with their cell phone?” comes from the last listed question: “Have you ever experienced or done any of the following? [emphasis added]”  The relevant yes/no response is “Slept with your cell phone on or right next to your bed [emphasis added].”[2]  That’s not the position typically imagined from the phrase “sleeping with.” Many persons, especially younger persons, have at least once fallen asleep on their beds with their clothes on, with their wallets, keys, and cell phones in their pockets.  So, in reality, the statistic on “adults who sleep with their cell phone” is one-time yawner.

Both the Wall Street Journal and the Pew report are striving to attract readers.  That’s much better than striving to repel readers.  Some sensationalism is excusable if an author also provides a good opportunity for an interested reader to understand well the relevant data.  The Pew report did that.  The Wall Street Journal didn’t.

*  *  *  *  *

Notes:

[1] See the graphic at the end of Katherine Rosman, “Y U Luv Texts, H8 Calls,” WSJ, Oct. 14, 2010.  Cf.  Amanda Lenhart, “Cell phones and American adults,” Pew Research Center, Sept. 2, 2010, p. 11.

[2] Lenhart (2010) p. 42.  An additional query item under this question is “Physically bumped into another person or object because you were distracted by talking or texting on your phone.” These survey items seems to be set in anticipation of media marketing effort.  Id. p. 2 is also keen to report, “Women tend to make slightly fewer calls with their cell phones than men [emphasis in original].”  Such a finding might help men not to feel inferior to women in social communication.  But the reality is that females are superior to males in social communication.  Nielsen data for persons ages 13-17 show that girls send and receive 60% more texts than boys and 43% more voice calls.  Adult communication statistics that confound communication for work and instrumental purposes with phatic, emotionally supportive, and presence-oriented communication obscure sex differences in communication.