Survey investigates iPhone addiction.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010 at 08:03 AM | Posted by LOOPRumors Staff

A recent survey conducted at Stanford University indicates that students are becoming habitually and compulsively involved with Apple’s celebrated smartphone.

In a survey of 200 students with iPhones, 69% reported that they likely forget their wallet before forgetting their phone.

On a scale of addiction to the iPhone from 1 to 5, 10% reported themselves a 5, or fully addicted, 34% percent reported a level 4 addiction and just 6% said they were not addicted at all.

Of those who had not reached a level 5 addiction, 32% were concerned that they would become addicted in the future.

“One of the most striking things we saw in the interviews was just how identified people were with their iPhone. It was not so much with the object itself, but it had so much personal information that it became a kind of extension of the mind and a means to have a social life. It just kind of captured part of their identity,” The anthropolgy professor who oversaw the survey, Professor Tanya Luhrmann, said to the San Jose Mercury News.

Among those surveyed:

- 41% said losing their iPhone would be “a tragedy”
- 30% called the machine their “doorway into the world”
- 15% reported that their iPhone was turning them into a media addict
- 25% described the device as “dangerously alluring”
- 7% reported having a roommate or significant other who felt neglected due to iPhone involvement
- 3% had named their iPhone
- 8% admitted thinking “My iPod is jealous of my iPhone”