The rising mobile addiction of 21st-century moms

By Yariv Ron

Mom, no mobile phone at the dinner table! Ever imagine the day where you would hear that?

Well, as weird as it sounds, that day is here. Twenty-first century moms have an active social media presence: commenting, liking, tweeting, posting and sharing. Hours are spent comparing prices on Amazon, shopping on Gilt and planning vacations on TripAdvisor.

New Flurry research on the growing phenomenon of mobile addiction has found one truly surprising fact: moms are more likely to be mobile addicts.

According to Flurry, a mobile addict is a consumer who launches applications more than 60 times per day, six times more than the average consumer. Today, there are 176 million mobile addicts, up from 79 million last year, a figure that represents a whopping 123 percent growth.

According to the research, moms are 10 times more likely than the average female user to be a mobile addict.

And this is not as surprising at it may seem at first.

Over the past couple of years, we have seen a clear growth in the number of U.S. mother smartphone users.

According to the BabyCenter 2013 Mobile Mom report, in 2013 87 percent of mothers in the United States had a smartphone, up from just 59 percent in 2011.

And these ladies were not shy about their reliance on the device. Forty-six percent of the mothers admitted to being addicted to their smartphones, describing that the phone was with them while shopping, watching television, driving the car, sleeping in bed and cooking in the kitchen.

Maybe it was due to the fact that this survey focused on the younger moms, and included expectant females and mothers with children under age nine.

Some of these women are part of the millennial generation, a group with an estimated buying power of $170 billion per year, according to comScore. Given the strong impact that this generation has on brands, it is important to understand how these women use their smartphones.

These new “Millennial Moms” are in their 20s and 30s, super career-focused, and pushing the traditional boundaries of society, often raising children on their own.

These moms are always on-the-go, using technology to simplify their over packed lives. The smartphone is an extension of the woman herself, present in every aspect of her life, including planning, researching, shopping, communicating and educating.

Millennials spend about 14 percent more time on their mobile devices in an average week than other generations.

For millennial moms, much of this time is spent shopping, with 81 percent describing that shopping is the No. 1 way that they use their smartphone, according to “Moms & Media 2,″ a Meredith Parents Network Survey.

Given the mom mobile addiction pattern and clear preference of younger moms for mobile shopping, it is crucial for publishers and developers to understand how to reach and engage these women.

Yariv Ron is founder/CEO of Appwiz, Tel Aviv, Israel. Reach him at yariv@appwiz.com.