Sweaty palms, short breaths, feeling uncomfortable?
Do you have your smart phone on you?
Do I?
Hey, Julia here for Dnews
Can’t function without your phone?
Panic when you can’t find it?
New research says you’re not alone.
Researchers from the University of Missouri sought to study this stressful situation.
They found that just being away from your phone can cause anxiety and make you perform
worse on important tasks.
To figure out what happens when people are separated from their phones, the researchers
put people to task filling out a simple word search puzzle, while hooked up to a blood
pressure cuff.
The researchers told the participants the experiment was to test new pressure cuffs,
so they wouldn’t suspect it was really about their phones.
While they puzzled away, the researchers asked them to rate how they were feeling, what their
level of anxiety was and if they had any feelings of pleasantness or unpleasantness.
After the first word search puzzle was complete, researchers told the participants that their
phones were causing bluetooth interference with the blood pressure cuff and had to be
moved to the other side of the room.
Once separated from their phones, the participants started on a second puzzle and in the middle
of figuring out the puzzle, researchers called them.
Imagine, sitting in a strange room, with a weird thing on your arm, you can’t figure
out where the word “Alaska” is in the puzzle, and YOUR PHONE STARTS TO RING.
What if it’s your mom, what if Timmy fell down a well again?
You just don’t know.
Not surprisingly, participants reported feeling unpleasant and anxious, and their heart rates
and blood pressure increased.
But not only did they feel worse, but they did worse on the crossword puzzle.
So what did the researchers conclude?
Phone anxiety is a very real thing and can lead to physiological anxiety and poor cognitive
performance.
They suggest that phones have become such a huge part of our lives that phones are now
an extension of our sense of self we feel a loss of a part of ourselves when we are
separated.
It seems this affects a lot of us.
Some researchers called it NoMoPhobia, or fear of being without your phone.
60% of responders to a recent survey said they can’t go more than an hour without
checking their phones and 73% said they panicked last time they thought they lost it.
So what would you rather go without than put down your phone?
One study found that most people would give up other comforts before their phones.
70% would rather give up alcohol, 63% would go without chocolate and 33% would rather
not have sex for a week than go without their phones for a week.
Another study found that 11% of americans would rather leave home without PANTS than
without their phones.
What to do about it?
Please keep your pants on and put your phone in your pocket or purse.
If you need to stay focused on a task like a meeting at work or a big test, keep your
phone on you, but turn it to vibrate or silent mode so you won’t have any distractions.
Are you as addicted to your phone as I am?
let us know in the comments below and keep checking out DNews for more science news everyday