iPhone Turns Users Into Junkies, Study Finds
According to a new Stanford University study, iPhone users are becoming so reliant on their iPhones that they are actually reporting being addicted to their Apple smartphones.
Almost half of the respondents in the 200 person study acknowledged an iPhone addiction.
Students were asked to rate their addiction to their iPhones on a scale of one to five, from 'not at all addicted' to 'fully addicted.' Forty-four percent answered with a four or above.
Here are some highlights from the Stanford study:
Only six percent of students said they weren't at all addicted to the device, whereas a full 10 percent said they were fully addicted, and 34 percent gave themselves a 'four' on the five-point scale.
Thirty-two percent of respondents who didn't report feeling completely addicted did worry that they would eventually become addicted.
Eighty-five percent of those surveyed reported using their iPhones as a watch while 89 percent use it as an alarm clock.
Seventy-five percent actually confessed to sleeping with their iPhone in bed next to them.
It isn't just phone and clock features making the iPhone so indispensable. As LiveScience notes, '15 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone was turning them into a media addict; 30 percent called it a 'doorway into the world'; 25 percent found the phone 'dangerously alluring' and 41 percent said losing their iPhone would be 'a tragedy.''
However, as students are using the iPhones to arrange their social lives, they must be careful to not let their addiction create a backlash: Seven percent of the students reported roommates or partners who felt neglected due to the respondent's iPhone use, giving rise to the term 'iPhone widow' for those people who feel as though they've lost their significant other to the iPhone.
Many of the reported 'side-effects' of iPhone use are positive as 70 percent reported being more organized, 54 percent were more productive and 74 percent just felt 'cool' having an iPhone.
Interestingly, the iPhone is seen less as an outside device and more of an extension of the person due to the amount of personal information held on it and the ways in which students use it to organize and facilitate their social lives. Researchers were surprised by how readily students seem to anthropomorphize the device.
Check out the results from another iPhone study, which cast iPhone users as 'porn-watching ego-maniacs.'
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Huffington Post Amanda Ng
First Posted: 05/09/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 04:45 PM ET