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.
