iPhone Addiction

My oldest son and I both own iPhones.  We both love our iPhones, but the degree of our affection is where we part ways.  Before he went away to college he would fall asleep with his iPhone next to him.  I doubt that sleeping habit has changed.  I always thought that a bit odd and extreme. Turns out it may still be odd, but maybe not so extreme.

It’s now official.  iPhones are addictive and people actually do snuggle up to them at night.  The study was by Stanford University on 200 iPhone-toting students.  And the headline coming out of the survey? 75% admit to falling  asleep with their iPhone in bed. What would Masters and Johnson say about that?  Here are some more highlights (or lowlights):

• 85% used the iPhone as their watch
• 89% used it as their alarm clock
• 69% said they were more likely to forget their wallet than their iPhone
• 30% called it a “doorway to the world”
• 41% said losing their iPhone would be “a tragedy”
• 8% admitted that they have at some time thought “My iPod is jealous of my iPhone”

Does that freak you out?  It may, but those behind the study won’t go so far as to call this iPhone addiction a medical problem on the same level as alcoholism or drug addiction.   Tanya Luhrman ( Stanford anthropology professor) said this: “I don’t think it is really unhealthy.  I think they really like their iPhone.”

I was curious so I just texted my college freshman son (iPhone to iPhone of course), and asked him, “Do you still sleep with your iPhone?”  He called me right away (iPhone to iPhone of course) asking a bit angrily and sheepishly, “What do you mean by that?”  After explaining my intentions, he calmed down and said, “Dad, my  iPhone is everything to me.  It’s my phone, my alarm clock, my planner.”   I pushed him further, “But do you still sleep with it?”   “I course I do, dad,” he answered, “Hey, I gotta go, I’m studying for a mid-term exam. “

After hanging up, I wondered, “Was that the father-son sex talk we never had?”