From texting friends about where they want to meet to scrolling endlessly through social media, phones have become an important part of everyone’s day to day life, especially for teenagers who grew up with technology. As phones have become more advanced, they have also gotten more expensive. Because our phones are so important to us, this increased price makes deciding what phone you are going to buy an even bigger decision. All this made me curious to know what phones Groves students used, so I conducted a poll on which phones my classmates used.
The first question I asked them was what brand of phone they used. Almost 98% of people said that they used an iPhone, while only four people said that they used an Android. This iPhone dominance is common amongst American teens, with 87% of them using iPhones per a poll conducted by Mac Rumors in 2022.
Additionally, I asked students if they would consider switching to a different phone brand, and only 14% of them said yes— which is most likely because so many of them have iPhones and are locked into features like iMessage, Facetime, and AirDrop. Most of these features are exclusive to Apple devices, making it hard to switch away from them if you use these features a lot. I was also curious how students got their phones, because of how expensive most high-end phones are. The answers for this question were more balanced, with 68% of students having their parents buy them their phones and 14% of them receiving it as a gift from someone else. The remaining 18% of students said that they paid for at least part of their phones. I also asked the students how often they got a new phone. 40% said that they got a new phone every three years, with 18.4% getting a new phone every other year. This lines up with the national average, with about 55% of people choosing to upgrade their phone every two to three years (according to a poll conducted by Slash Gear). This is common, because many people will buy a new phone when their current phone contract ends.
The results of this poll were interesting, showing how Groves is similar and different to the rest of the country in terms of their phone usage. iPhones are even more popular at Groves than they are amongst other teens. However, there are other parts of Groves phone usage that align more with the national average, such as how often students get new phones.
