Skip to main content

Study: Gadgets make wealthy people’s lives ‘more stressful’

gold-ipad-studyThese days, most of us don’t have enough expendable cash to just go out and buy every hot new gadget that suits our fancy. It turns out, however, that that might not be such a bad thing for our general happiness. According to a recent study, affluent members of society feel that the more electronics they purchase, the more complicated their lives feel.

The study comes from research firm Ipsos Mendelsohn, which surveys households that earn more than $100,000 per year. When asked in January how their lives had changed over the past decade, a whopping 79 percent said that life had become increasingly “technology-infused.” That’s because it has.

Recommended Videos

Nearly all affluent members of society — 98 percent — spend at least 25 hours per week on the Internet. The upper-crust group also own an average of 3.5 TV sets, and about 75 percent own high-definition televisions. Two-thirds of those surveyed have a digital video recorder (DVR) connected to their TV.

“The most dramatic changes have been seen in the adoption of ‘new’ media platforms,” write Bob Shullman and Stephen Kraus, president and chief research and insights officer of Ipsos Mendelsohn, respectively, in a blog post on Ad Age. These platforms include smartphones — which “barely qualify as ‘new media’ any more,” say Shullman and Kraus — tablets and e-readers.

More than half of wealthy individuals own smartphones, and 92 percent own some kind of wireless or cellular device. Shullman and Kraus predict that, while only 14 percent own a tablet now, a full one-third of well-to-do people will own one within the next 12 months. The number of “Affluents” who own e-readers more than doubled between September 2010 and April 2011, from 13 percent to 23 percent.

Despite the gadget spending spree amongst those well off, their quality of life seems to have, if anything, degraded. After the “technology infused” option for how their lives had changed, the next most-picked options were “more complicated,” “more stressful” and “focused on finding ways to do more with less.” Fewer than half said their lives had become “more fun.”

Shullman and Kraus say that, with the direction we seem to be headed, the technology infusion will only get more intense, at least in the short term.

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
This 14-inch Dell 2-in-1 laptop is on sale with a $250 discount
Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 (7445) front view showing display.

Are you having trouble deciding between laptop deals and tablet deals for your next device? You don't have to choose between them if you go for the Dell Inspiron 14 7440 2-in-1 laptop, which you can get with a $250 discount from Dell right now. From its original price of $750, it's on sale for a more affordable $500, but we're not sure for how much longer. You're going to have to be quick with your purchase if you want to pocket the savings -- we recommend buying the 2-in-1 laptop immediately just to be sure.

Why you should buy the Dell Inspiron 14 7440 2-in-1 laptop
The Dell Inspiron 14 7440 is almost the same as the Dell Inspiron 14 7445, save for the components that power it. Instead of an AMD chip, the Dell Inspiron 14 7440 runs on the Intel Core 5 120U processor, alongside Intel Graphics and 8GB of RAM. These specifications will be more than enough for daily tasks such as browsing social media, watching streaming shows, and working on spreadsheets and documents. The device also comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed in a 512GB SSD for ample storage space for your apps and files, and it has a dedicated key to launch Microsoft's Copilot if you need any help from the AI assistant.

Read more
Tourists are renting robotic legs to climb up a mountain
People hiking up a mountain.

For many vacationers, a trip might involve a challenging climb up a mountain for a spot of exercise and to enjoy the amazing views from the top, the sense of satisfaction enhanced by all of the effort expended to reach the peak.

But for some tourists taking on Mount Tai in Shandong, China, the required exertion seems like a waste of ... well ... energy. Especially when a pair of robotic legs can do the job instead.

Read more
Grok 3 launch confirmed as 10 times more powerful than previous model
Elon Musk and the xAI team launching Grok 3

Elon Musk and the xAI team announced the Grok 3 AI model in an evening live stream on Monday.

The team detailed that the new model is "a magnitude more capable" than Grok 2, indicating Grok 3 has 10 to 15 times more power than Grok 2. They also claim that Grok 3 is more powerful than its AI model competitors such as DeekSeek and Google Gemini.

Read more