Here’s more proof that our relationship with technology has gotten too close for comfort: A report from eMarketer shows that this year, 60.5 million Americans will use a voice-enabled virtual assistant at least once a month. That means we’re chatting with Siri, Alexa, Cortana and the like more often than some people talk to their own parents.
Those 60.5 million people make up 27.5 percent of smartphone users and one-fifth of the total U.S. population, according to the report. The ubiquity of these virtual assistants is rising fast — eMarketer notes that the use of voice-activated assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home increased by nearly 130 percent since last year.
Most of these users are between the ages of 25 and 34, the report notes. Overall, 33.5 percent of American millennials will chat with a virtual assistant this year.
Originally published at journal.thriveglobal.com