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Danes check their phones 2.5 times every hour

Lucie Rychla
August 4th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Student video campaign points at negative social effects of habit

A new study on mobile consumer trends by the consulting company Deloitte has revealed that the Danes check their mobile phones on average 2.5 times every hour.

“If we apply this to the whole population, it means we look at our smartphones 170 million times a day,” Frederik Behnk, a media expert at Deloitte, told TV2. 

However, 17 percent of the young people aged 18-29 admit they check their mobile phone at least 10 times per hour.

“Such a high frequency suggests, in essence, that they constantly keep an eye on the phone to keep up with new calls, messages and social media,” Behnk noted.

READ MORE: Public school bans mobile phones

Banned at schools
Some schools in Denmark have already banned the use of mobile phones during classes to improve students’ concentration.

And recently, a group of students from Thisted Municipality decided to create a video campaign pointing out the effect that constant fiddling with a mobile phone has both on learning and on social interaction.

“We have made the videos to make young people our own age aware that they can miss out on teaching and on socialising with peers if they use mobile phones during classes and breaks,” said Ingeborg Fredslund-Madsen, a 16-year old student from Thisted.

Meanwhile, a study from Baylor University, Texas has found that people who compulsively check for mobile phone updates tend to be emotionally unstable and prone to moodiness.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”