Seven out of ten South Koreans surveyed last year said they considered smartphones "essential" to their day-to-day lives.
 
The finding was revealed by the Korea Information Society Development Institute(KISDI) on Tuesday, based on its analysis of a survey conducted by the Korea Communications Commission on six-thousand-834 people aged 13 or older in 2021.

Seventy-point-three percent of the respondents cited smartphones as an essential medium in their daily lives, up 14-point-eight percentage points from 2016.

Meanwhile, only 27-point-one percent cited televisions as essential, down eleven-point-five percentage points from 2016.

Less than ten percent of respondents in their teens, 20s and 30s each cited television as a medium they heavily rely on, while over 85 percent of each age group cited smartphones as such. Those in their 40s and 50s also preferred smartphones at a rate of 84-point-three and 70-point-four percent, respectively.

Respondents spent an average of 122-point-nine minutes a day on their smartphones, up 23-point-nine minutes from five years earlier, KISDI said.