One in three Irish adults couldn't go an hour without internet 

Survey finds 40% of adults would turn down €5m if they couldn't use internet again

Almost one in three adults in Ireland couldn’t go a full hour without internet, according to a new survey, 40% of adults would turn down €5m if it meant they could never use the internet again, according to a new survey released today.

Almost one in three adults in Ireland couldn’t go a full hour without internet, according to a new survey, with 40% of adults saying they would turn down €5m if it meant they could never use the internet again.

The Connected Lives study by Pure Telecom was conducted by Censuswide surveying 1,001 adults in Ireland, and looked at how  the internet has become critical to facilitating meaningful and lasting human connections.

Young people, in particular, struggle to spend much time away from the internet and internet-connected devices, with 38% of 18-to-24-year-olds said they couldn’t cope with a full hour without internet. Additionally, almost half (48%) of this age group would reject the €5m cheque in exchange for being cut off from the internet.

Almost half of all respondents (48%) feel that their online interactions feel just as meaningful as in-person conversations, while 61% credit the internet for improving their relationships with friends and family. 

 “It’s only when we stop to think that we realise just how much we rely on the internet for our everyday lives and human connections," said Pure Telecom chief executive Paul Connell. "We are sending instant messages to friends, tracking workouts and watching TV – all online – so in that context, an hour can feel like a long time. In fact, our research found that one-in-10 adults – more than 400,000 of us – couldn’t even make it beyond 15 minutes."