Nordic Youth Says “Whatever” to Smartphones

A new survey, conducted in Nordic countries, shows that young people – ages 18 to 24 – are over the smartphone craze, being the age group with the least percentage of smartphone owners. However, the study didn’t include Iceland and Vísir reports that the situation is quite different in our country.

The survey was conducted by Deloitte and aimed to investigate the use of smartphones in Nordic Countries, by age group. The study included Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland and separated the surveyed into six groups. They unexpectedly found out that the age group that had more people that didn’t own smartphones was the youngest one. This year, only 87% of people from 18 to 24 admitted owning one, declining from 92% in 2018. On the other hand, people from 35 to 44 years old rank the highest with 96% of them owning a device. It is curious to see that even the seniors (65 to 75 y/o) rank higher than the youngsters at 89%.

The Danish media outlet, Politiken, says that the youngest group is also the one suffering the most consequences due to long screen time. This might be the root of the diminishing use of the devices, and the consequential growth of more analog methods within this generation.

This said, the situation in Iceland is quite different. Bragi Þór Antoníusson, ELKO’s marketing manager, says Icelandic teens are still very much into smartphones. “If anything, this age group is buying more smartphones than ever,” he said. Even though the total sales of mobile phones in the Icelandic market have decreased by 20%, Brági believes that smartphones will never fall out of fashion and that the decrease is due to the increase in the quality of the devices.