Things, They Are Changing!

I don't know if you ever saw some of the movies from the 50's where the daughter of the house tied up the phone by talking with a friend for hours.  Are you of an age where you'd see people standing around outside having great conversations while smoking?  Well things are defiantly changing.

Yesterday when I walked from Barnes and Nobel to Walmart, I passed three young men standing in a group outside of the sports shop but they were not smoking.  They were all furiously involved with doing something like texting on their phones.  I don't think it was Pokeman Go because they were not moving around but it might have been one of those multiplayer games created to play on mobile devices.

The people you play against might be in the next town or even in another country.  I find it interesting that you are playing a game with someone and you never see them.  In a sense playing a game this way means you miss a certain amount of body language, excitement, and companionship you have when in the same location. 

I have friends who are always replying to a text even at work.  I wonder about this need for instantaneous gratification by responding. The cell phone is changing the way people converse.  Think about it!  You can access your phone at any time, any place. You only need a signal.  You can carry on a full conversation via texting (yes I've done it but I am a very slow typist) and I get out of it as soon as possible. 


  I discovered  there are about 170 million mobile phone gamers in the United States.  Mobile games penetrate about 56% of those who own cell phones.  On average children spend 7 hours a week playing games on their mobile devices but remember this is an average so some play more and some play less.  Most of these gamers spend $26 per year on mobile games.

Did you know that there are about 4% more women playing games than men and a woman's session lasts 25% longer than a woman's.  In addition, women are tended to play several games while men stayed with one or two games.

Want to be surprised?  It turns out parents are more likely to be gamers than their teen aged children.  We are talking 61% of the parents vs 15% of the children.  That is quite a difference.

I am amazed at these stats because I honestly thought that teenagers were the highest age group of players, not parents.  I wonder why that is?  Those stats do not apply to me.  Yes I'm a woman but I do not spend that much time each day playing games.  In fact, unless it deals directly with work, I do not use a mobile device until I get home for the night.

Are you one of those parents who play games on your mobile devices?  Do you play longer than your children?  Think about it and let me know!