Mobile phone users stick to 4 basic functions

A recent report from Paypal, the online payment processing website, reveals that although technology is progressing as fast as ever over half of Brits feel that modern technology has become too complicated and would happily turn their back on it.

Many people in the UK are using the new technological advances to make life easier and more enjoyable but many are still living behind the times. One in three are unable to correctly set a video recorder despite the technology being so old its out of date. 77% of users are unable to set a DVD recorder, the modern video technology.

Mobile phones are now more popular and have far more features than last year and yet most are unable to use more than the basic functions. 61% of mobile phone users in the UK are unable to progress past the phone calls, text messages, alarm clock and camera functions. 40% apparently don’t know if their phone has a camera function.

Neil Edwards, PayPal’s technology expert commented:

It’s a worrying sign for Britain that so many of us are baffled and therefore turned off by technology. There’s no hiding from technology so burying your head in the sand won’t make it go away. We all must embrace technology or risk becoming the tech illiterates of the world.

Almost three quarters of people use a mobile phone but adoption of newer technologies such as MP3 players has been slower. The main barrier for adoption seems to be age with most users tending to be in the 16 to 24 age group.

Although women are lagging behind men in their use of gadgets the proportions using mobile phones are the same between sexes.