Survey: U.S. residents addicted to e-mail

U.S. residents are so hooked on e-mail that some check for messages in the bathroom, in church and while driving, a new survey sponsored by America Online Inc. has found.

The average e-mail user in the U.S. has two or three e-mail accounts and spends about an hour every day reading, sending and replying to messages, according to the survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corp.

E-mail dependency is so strong for 41% of survey respondents that they check their e-mail in-boxes right after getting out of bed in the morning. The average user checks his in-box five times a day, according to the survey, which polled 4,012 respondents at least 18 years old in the 20 largest U.S. cities.

ARGH!!!!!!!! We’re all addicted!! Help! Help!! I can’t stop communicating and socializing with my friends and family.

Please, can we stop using emotionally-laden terms like “addiction” to explain perfectly normal, everyday behavior?! (More on this Net addiction craze…

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 1 Jun 2005
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