Does Your Smartphone Control You?

A new study by global tech company Asurion found that the average American checks their phone about 80 times a day. That’s once every 12 minutes! Experts say the separation anxiety is due to smartphones becoming the “remote control to our lives.”

While we like to think that we are not addicted to our handheld devices, the truth is that we probably use them more often than we think. When 2,000 people were asked about their cell phone habits, one in 10 said they check their phone every four minutes and 31% of the people said they feel anxiety when they are separated from their phone. At least 81% of American adults own a smartphone and our phones have become the “remote control” to our lives. We use them to store our contacts, photos, shop, work, use GPS and more. That ends up being over 4 hours a day that we spend on our phones!

Additionally, in your lifetime, it is estimated that you will spend 5 years and 4 months on social media. You could walk your dog 93,000 times in that length of time! When looking at the number of times Millennials check their phones, the numbers are much higher. They are estimated to check their phones at least 150 times per day! The reason might be because dopamine (the feel good hormone) is released in the brain as a result of those tweets, emails and text messages. However, the great debate on whether technology is helping or hindering our relationships continues.