If you check your email from bed or in the bathroom, on holiday or in church then you’re not alone! The results from AOL’s fourth annual email addiction survey revealed that Americans, at least, are a nation of email addicts.

I won’t admit to ever checking my inbox from the bathroom but I do know how reliant we are becoming on our electronic mail. Many of our hosting customers business’s depend on email so we understand just how important their server’s uptime is. And I’d be willing to bet that America’s traits are somewhat similar to the behaviour of New Zealanders.

According to AOL’s survey, nearly half of email users said they’re hooked on email and 51% check their email four or more times a day. One in five admit to checking their email more than 10 times a day.

And we just can’t walk away from our inboxes says Regina Lewis, AOL Online Consumer Advisor. Of those surveyed, 60% said they’ve never gone more than 5 days without checking email and 17% can’t go more than one day without email.

Some user-related findings from the AOL survey:

Nearly two-thirds of at-work email users said they check their work email over a typical weekend, and nearly one in five check email five or more times in a weekend. Worse, 28% said they feel obligated to check work email while on vacation, and 19% choose vacation spots with email access. More than 50% said they check their email while on vacation.

Twenty-three percent are checking their email as soon as they wake up, followed by right when they get home from work (11%) and right after dinner (9%).

So where are we checking our email from?

• In bed in their pajamas: 67%
• From the bathroom: 59%
• While driving: 50%
• In a bar or club: 39%
• In a business meeting: 38%
• During happy hour: 34%
• While on a date: 25%
• From church: 15%

In my next post, I’ll be expanding on this subject and looking at some of the features needed to support email on a mobile device, and showing just how easy it can be to retrieve your email – if you really have too.

Until then… Don’t do it in the bathroom!