A third of people admit to feeling overwhelmed by technology and say they want to reduce the amount of time they spend on their phones and computers, according to a survey.

Nearly one in five people (19%) said they used communication technology for more than seven hours a day.

Researchers found 42% of people surveyed had reduced the amount of time they spend on social networking sites, with a fifth saying they had cut down the amount of texts they send.
A similar amount (19%) said they had tried to reduce the number of emails they send.

Around one in three (34%) people aged between 25 and 34 said they felt overwhelmed by the amount of communications technology available to them and that figure rose to 38% for under-18s.

Researchers spoke to 1,269 people for the survey which was sponsored by British Telecom and led by a team from the University of Cambridge.

Professor John Clarkson said: "Communications technology is changing the way that society interacts and now, with the explosion in personal communications devices, wifi and increasing broadband speeds, is a great time to start charting this change.

"There is much discussion about whether communications technology is affecting us for the better or worse. The research has shown that communications technology is seen by most as a positive tool but there are examples where people are not managing usage as well as they could be - it is not necessarily the amount but the way in which it is used."