7 Reasons Americans Consume a Ton of Mobile Data
If you thought you were the only one who used a lot of mobile data, you would be mistaken. Americans used a total of 9.6 trillion MB's of data in the year 2015. That is more than double their previous usage in 2014 of 3.2 trillion MB.
In today's world, the lives of Americans are run on mobile devices, so it's no surprise that they use a lot of data. So why is it that there is so much data being used and this usage is only on the rise?
Navigation Systems
Now days it's easy enough to enter in an address on one of the many free navigation apps available. This allows you to easily use your smartphone as a GPS to get to your destination. But this alone can use up to 1MB each minute it is in use. To save data, Americans may want to rethink this convenience and go back to using a standard GPS system in their vehicles.
Watching Video
It's gotten so easy and convenient to stream a movie or television show straight to your smartphone no matter where you are. For parents, when you need to keep kids busy at appointments, you can load up their favorite television shows and they will be good to go. But whether you are streaming movies or watching cat videos on YouTube you can use up to 2MB of data for a one-minute video.
Social Media Usage
Everyone is connected to the outside world via social media these days. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or others, checking it frequently has become routine for many Americans during their day. It doesn't just stop when they are at work either. Instead, they continuously check what is going on in the world of social media on their lunch breaks and other breaks throughout their work day. When you upload images, such as the memes you view on Facebook, it can use up to 20 MB of data each hour.
Listening to Music
Listening to the radio isn't as simple as turning on your cars stereo system anymore. Instead you can stream live radio and music through applications like Spotify or Pandora frequently throughout the day. These songs do come at a price, up to 1MB each minute.
Browsing the Internet
When you are bored at an appointment or on break at work, what do you find yourself frequently doing? More than likely you are on your phone browsing the internet at some point. Different web pages use different amounts of data, which can vary. Sites with rich visual graphics can use more while text based sites will use less. A good guesstimate on how much data can be used is about 20 MB each hour.
Checking Emails
While each email is tiny in the amount of data it uses, 30 to 40 emails read can equal up to 1MB of data; this is only if they don't include images or even attachments, which will add even more to the data total.
Online Games
Online mobile gaming is a great way to cure boredom when you have nothing to do. It also makes for some addictive game playing, which brings you in to keep on playing and checking on your game each day. Because of this, more mobile data is being used to frequently check on and play these games. One way to decrease the amount of data used for gaming is to use Wi-Fi capabilities whenever possible. More and more public places are offering free Wi-Fi, which allows you to connect whenever you are out to save on data.
Final Thoughts
It's no surprise that in today's world, Americans are using much more mobile data than ever before. Because of these findings, many mobile companies are taking notice at the amount of data being used and have started to offer better, more attractive packages for those who use a lot of data. Some companies are even featuring unlimited data for their mobile customers, at a higher price of course. However, this is helping to decrease the amount of customers who use more than their prearranged limit of data that their current plan offers.
