I don’t want to miss a thing
Why we cannot keep our fingers off our smartphones
A psychological study by the
Universities of Würzburg and Nottingham Trent for Kaspersky Lab
卡巴斯基key怎么用Hate when your friends are having fun without you? Don’t worry, it’s just FOMO.
If you’re waiting for a friend, a colleague or even a doctor’s appointment, how long do you think it takes before you check your phone – two minutes? Three? An experiment conducted on behalf of Kaspersky L
ab by the Universities of Würzburg and Nottingham Trent found that participants left in a waiting room on their own lasted an average of just 44 seconds before touching their smartphones. Men couldn’t even manage half of this time, waiting an average of only 21 seconds compared to women at 57 seconds.
To delve deeper into our companionship on digital devices, after ten minutes participants were asked how long they thought it had been before they reached for their phone. Most said between two and three minutes, highlighting a significant disconnect between perception and actual behaviour.
Additional research conducted by the universities suggests that this compulsion to check our phones could be as a result of fear of missing out (FOMO) on something when not online. In an accompanying survey, participants that used their phones more intensely admitted to a higher level of FOMO.
The study also found that the more we use our phones, the more stressed we become. But surprisingly, when participants were asked about their overall happiness there was no difference between light and heavy users. So the stress caused by smartphone usage does not seem to have a major influence on our well-being in general.
During the 10-minute waiting session, participants used their smartphone on average for almost half th
e time (five minutes). As previous research by Kaspersky Lab demonstrated, we rely heavily on mobile devices these days as an extension of our brains, using them as tools so we don’t have to remember facts anymore. The majority of respondents, for example, could not remember their current partner’s phone number but could still recall their home number from when they were ten.
Research Methodology
Laboratory Experiment
Sample
The experiment was conducted in Würzburg (Germany) and in Nottingham (United Kingdom). Therefore, our sample is binational (GER: 59, UK: 36). Overall, 95 participants (56 female and 39 male) took part, varying in age from 19 to 56 years (M = 27.97, SD = 8.01). Care was taken to balance the experimental conditions and gender across laboratory sites.
We recruited participants within a data collection period of two weeks from 5 April - 29 April, 2016 via online advertisements (e.g. Ebay classifieds) and social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Google+). A compensation of at least 15€ (Wuerzburg) or £10 (UK) was advertised for one hour of participation. The participation was voluntary and based on ethical guidelines.
Procedure
Participants were invited to professional laboratory facilities at the Universities of Wuerzburg (Germany) and Nottingham Trent (England). Participants were guided by a researcher who followed an experimental procedure with a detailed script, to ensure that each participant was addressed similarly and encountered identical instructions.
Online Survey
Our online study focused on the meaning/importance the smartphone carries as well as the relationship and the emotional connection users feel they have with their smartphones.
Sample
We recruited participants over a period of three months (February to April 2016) via online advertisements (e.g. Ebay classifieds), social media platforms (e.g. Facebook) and mailing lists. The resulting overall sample consisted of 1215 participants ranging in age from 15 to 83 years (mean age = 28.6, standard deviation = 9.09)1, from a variety of countries with a distinct focus on Germany and the
1In the following, mean values will be denoted by M, standard deviations by SD.
United Kingdom. Female respondents were in a two-thirds majority and the overall level of education amongst participants was high. The majority were students and employees with a university degree.
Figure 1: Participants by gender
The participants’ age groups
Figure 2: Frequency of participants by age group, asking “How old are you?
Figure 3: Number of participants by origin; most participants from Germany (808), UK (148) and USA (33) According to age groups most participants were students, more than 400 were employees
Figure 4: Number of participants by occupation, asking “What is your occupation?”
Procedure and instruments
Participation in the survey was entirely voluntary. The survey study followed core ethical principles based on the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants were asked to engage in self-reports and responses to set tasks. The central variables are as follows:
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