Smartphone obsession leads to “phantom” vibrations, increased stress levels

Picture the following: you are expecting to receive an important text message or email on your smartphone. All of a sudden you feel that your handset is vibrating in your pocket informing you that it has been received. However, you take the device out only to realize that your imagination is playing games with you.

If the above scenario sounds familiar, you are actually not alone. In fact, a study conducted by the British Psychological Society reveals that many smartphone owners are so obsessed with their devices that they experience the so-called “phantom” vibrations.

Increased stress levels are said to be a primary cause for the phenomenon to occur. As a result, people tend to check their smartphones more and more often in anticipation for a new email, text, or social network message to be sent to them. However, that behavior was discovered to lead to even more stress for the smartphone user leading them into a vicious circle that is tough to escape from. 

Interestingly, the researchers point out that the majority of users suffering from the aforementioned “phantom” vibrations were the ones who received their smartphone from their employer, the point of that being increasing their productivity, of course. The paradox here is that instead of being beneficial to them, staying constantly connected to their work only brings more stress to those employees.

Have you ever experienced “phantom” vibrations? Feel free to let us know by dropping a comment.

source: Telegraph via Pocket-Lint