E-mail has become a pervasive, mission-critical aspect of business and personal life for many. It turns out, though, that Americans actually have an obsessive-compulsive need to check it morning, noon and night.
America Online and Opinion Research Corporation surveyed 4,012 respondents in 20 U.S. cities to gauge the degree to which Americans obsess over e-mail. According to the results of the E-Mail Addiction survey, released today, e-mail users depend on e-mail as much as the phone for communication.
Sixty-one percent reported that they checked their personal e-mail accounts while at work an average of three times a day. Most users (47 percent) will check their personal e-mail accounts sporadically throughout the day. Upon arriving to work (25 percent), at lunchtime (18 percent), during an afternoon break (8 percent) and just before heading home (2 percent) trail in frequency.
Slightly more than a quarter (26 percent) indicated that they checked their personal e-mail to take care of personal errands while 20 percent checked it to correspond with family and friends.
The vast majority of respondents have never been ''busted'' for checking their personal e-mails while on the company dime, and only 9 percent reported that they've ever been caught by the boss.
E-mail also follows Americans on vacations, with 60 percent checking it while away on holiday: 13 percent of the time for business and 47 percent for pleasure.
For some, e-mail has been at the core of a restless night with 40 percent indicating that they have checked their e-mail in the middle of the night. First thing in the morning is the time noted by 40 percent of respondents for checking, while 14 percent check as soon as they get home from work. Eighteen percent check after dinner and 14 percent check before going to bed.
E-mail has become such an important component of life that 26 percent reported that they haven't gone more than two to three days without checking in.
