Future Foundation: Tablets redefining bedtime

Tablet devices are “redefining bedtime” according to the Future Foundation’s head of research Katie Toll, as she spoke at the annual nVision conference on Tuesday.

With 61% of the UK population using tablets in the bedroom and peak usage between 6pm and 10pm, the end of the day has become a time for productivity, lifestyle management and entertainment – a world away from relaxation.

The ubiquity of easy access technologies has also forced an expectation that we should always be connected, Toll says, and therefore we have a strong inclination to respond immediately to both personal and work-related messages.

17% of tablet owners admitted to checking work emails whilst in bed, compared with the 7% of non-tablet owners that said that they did, according to Future Foundation research. Work life and personal life are merging – becoming one continuous stream, it is argued – and as a result people feel like they are working longer and are feeling more under pressure.

Toll also argues that we have become an ‘always on’ generation, in which 68% of 25-34 year olds said that they never switch their mobile phones off.

However, despite the exponential growth of the tablet – which experienced a year on year sales growth of 234% – Dr Kate Stone of Novalia, a creative technology company, believes that the only reason the iPad was so successful is because the user interfaces we had before were so poor.

“Every space and surface has the capacity to become interactive,” she says, as we find ourselves walking into a world of advanced and innovative technology such as Google Glass and smart watches.

“We need to cut out the technology interfaces to leave the user with a ‘pure experience'”, moving away from keyboard commands to brain commands.

In time technology will become ‘human’, says Stone. The future will begin to look more like the past as people stop expecting technology to look ‘futuristic’.