A staggering 41% of New Zealanders feel stressed when they don’t have access to the internet, according to new findings by financial research and ratings company Canstar Blue.
Canstar New Zealand General Manager, Derek Bonnar says, the most anxious are Gen Ys with 55% stating that having no internet access stresses them out.
“But when they are connected, nearly a third of Kiwis (30%) often feel guilty about how long they spend online, but aren’t motivated to do anything about the number of hours glued to their screens,” Bonnar adds.
Generation Ys (46%) are the most likely to feel guilty about hours spent on the internet, compared to 21% of Baby Boomers.
Just over a quarter (26%) of Kiwis spend more time socialising online than they do in person, with Aucklanders spending over 32 hours of their week online, nearing on the same amount of hours in a working week.
“The internet is definitely becoming ubiquitous, and not always with positive effects,” Bonnar observes.
“17% of Aucklanders say that the amount of time they spend online is negatively impacting their relationships, compared to 12% who said the same in 2014.”
More men (14%) are noticing a harmful effect on their real-life relationships than women (9%) but women are spending more time cultivating their online relationships, with 42% updating and/or checking their social media accounts more than four times a day.
More than a third of Kiwis (36%) check or update their social accounts many times a day, but those from the Bay of Plenty are the least interested in what is going on in their online worlds (27%) - Aucklanders (43%) however, are maintaining their online profiles the most often.
Across the ages, Gen Ys are the most on-pulse with their media accounts (62%) and Gen Xs (49%) and Baby Boomers (23%) are less concerned with online, social maintenance.