Half of British millennials are getting sick of the internet - report

A new EY report shows 50% of 25-34-year olds are looking to ‘digital detox’, the highest proportion of all age groups.

The “Decoding the digital home 2019” report, published by EY, the professional service firm, was done based an online survey of 2,500 British households in late 2018. In addition to the high proportion of youth wishing to increase their time away from smartphones and other internet connected devices, more people are spending less time online. The percentage of households spending more than 30 hours online per week has gone down from 34% a year ago to 28%, while those spending less than 10 hours online has slightly increased from 18% to 21%.

There are also other surprises. For example, more consumers are happy with their fibre connections (59%, up from 54% a year ago) but also higher number of young people are ready to ditch the fixed broadband (43%). 42% of 18-24-year olds are happy to pay a premium to get the latest gadgets, but only 18% of the 25-year olds and above, who would have more disposable income, are prepared to do so.

The key message that the telecoms and internet industries should take away from the survey, however, is that consumers want simplicity, proof of trust, and assurance of security.

Both service and content providers are confusing consumers with over-complex packages, causing anxiety among users, including the youth. 46% of households think there are too many different broadband, mobile, and content bundles, so most of them will not add anything new to the packages they already subscribe to. Content providers are trying to maximise the distribution channels they can use, therefore making their content available across different packages, platforms, and apps. However, nearly a quarter of all surveyed households found it hard to track their favourite content. This number rose to close to 40% among the 18-24-year olds, the so-called “digital natives”.

The high-profile cases of comprised private data have instilled more caution to consumers. 72% of respondents said that even when dealing with brands they trust they would be very cautious about disclosing their personal financial information online.

On the other hand, the heated debates over “fake news” have driven more consumers less confident in the “new media”. 44% of households responded that they now only trust the traditional news sources. In a teaser to an upcoming report, EY disclosed that over half of all households only watch the five traditional channels on TV.

But it is not all bad news especially for the mobile industry. In 15% of the households surveyed, smartphones are now the main devices to go online with (up from 11% in 2017), at the expense of laptops (down from 44% to 39%). When it comes to consumer spending, slightly more are willing to pay for ad-free streaming (up from 16% to 18%) and slightly fewer are holding their purse strings as tightly as possible when it comes to spending on communication services (down from 55% to 53%)

“Our latest survey highlights both opportunities and challenges for TMT providers. They will be pleased to see that consumers are willing to pay for premium services, but they will also be concerned that customers are overwhelmed and confused by the variety of bundles available,” said Praveen Shankar, EY’s Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications for the UK & Ireland. “Looking ahead, it is essential for providers to simplify their propositions and offer easier to understand and clearly communicated product and services.”