We live in a world where almost everything you could want is at the touch of a button. Gone are the days of waiting weeks for a letter to arrive in the post – if we haven’t heard back from our loved ones within an hour, most of us begin to worry!
A new survey of over 1,000 people, conducted on behalf of mobile phone comparison website HandsetExpert, questioned Brits about ignoring phone calls, remembering numbers and their preferred methods of contact.
On average, us Brits choose to ignore around four calls per day, with men more likely to refuse to answer than women. Half of us do not even feel guilty if we choose to ignore a call from our parents…!
It’s fascinating to see the difference in priorities across different regions, with the proportion of people who remember the numbers of their loved ones as opposed to their work changing depending on which part of the UK you are from.
Those in the East of England are the least likely to feel bad if they choose not to pick up a call from mum and dad as over half of those surveyed admitted to not feeling guilty, whilst people in the North East suffer the most from a guilty conscience, only 29% admit they don’t feel bad when skipping a call from their mum or dad.
If the boss is calling out of hours?
29% of Brits are likely to ignore or decline the call. In keeping with their guilty conscience, those in the North East are least likely to ignore a call from their boss.
The Northern Irish are least concerned with taking work calls out of hours. Out of all the numbers in our phonebook, Brits are best at remembering their parents’ number, with 63% saying they know it off by heart.
Interestingly, we’re also quite good at remembering our work number too – over half of Brits (54%) admit they have it memorised. The number we seem to know the least is our partners’, with less than half of us managing to remember their digits.
While the majority aren’t bothered if we call our partner and they don’t answer, 21% of us do begin to worry, with women feeling more concerned than men. The research also found that women are more likely to be suspicious of their partner ignoring a call than men.
When asking Brits what their preferred method of contact with parents was it was found that 56% would make a voice call, 20% would send a text and 12% would instant message (WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger).
Just 5% would make a video call, 4% would email and only 3% would sit down to write a letter. Interestingly, the research found that men were more likely to hand write a letter to their parents than women.
Shahrum Gilani at HandsetExpert says: “Our research shows the profound influence modern technology has had on our daily lives. Even 15 years ago, not knowing a loved one’s phone number would have been highly unusual – now it’s the norm.”
