Do you sleep side-by-side with your smart phone? Do you really miss it when its battery is dead or you’ve left it at home? Are you unable of making it a few hours without holding it closely?
Then it sounds like you’re guilty of being in a relationship with your phone.
According to new research from Jurys Inn, Ireland’s love affair with technology is heating up while our offline relationships could be heading for the rocks. This new study exposes Ireland’s technology obsession and ranks the smart phone habits that make our blood boil.
Here are some signs that you and your phone are exclusive:
Your phone is the only one you want to wake up next to
Rather than cuddling up and greeting your other half in the morning, you would rather turn over and check on your other love, your phone. According to this study, one in three of us confess to checking our phone as soon as we wake up, even before kissing our partner.
You choose your phone over friends
Would you rather check on your phone (just in case someone is urgently looking for you of course – not just to check how many likes you got on your latest Instagram) rather than joining in on the conversation while you’re catching up with friends?
A huge 69% of people say that friends using their phone while mid-conversation is the most annoying phone habit.
You don’t notice the world around you while with your phone
This may be romantic when you and your significant other don’t even pay attention to what’s going on around you because you are so engrossed in each other, not so much when it’s with a phone.
35% of people say the smart phone habit they find most annoying is people bumping into them because they are distracted by looking at their phone.
You could just gaze into each other’s eyes for hours
You could lie there aimlessly scrolling through your Instagram, twitter, Facebook and snap chat updates and suddenly realise two hours have passed and you have done nothing with your life. But this lack of productivity doesn’t bother you, you will do it all again tomorrow.
You would rather watch a concert through the screen of your phone
You pay €60 for a concert ticket, charge up your phone, then stand in the crowd while holding your phone above everyone’s heads watching it all in through the tiny screen. Let's face it, If your phone was dead and you couldn’t check-in and Snapchat the entire concert, you might as well have stayed at home.
You have mastered the double – sometimes triple – screen
You can watch TV, browse your newsfeed on Facebook and take selfies all at the same time. In fact, watching a movie is just an hour and a half long excuse to scroll through your phone, hopefully without anyone else noticing.
Your phone being dead gives you separation anxiety
For you this is extremely tough, what if you missed Kim Kardashian's newest selfie, a picture of someone’s dinner or one of your friend’s screenshots in the group WhatsApp?
You are part of the 50% of Irish people who admit checking their phone more than 10 times a day and when you don’t have the option of doing this it makes you uneasy. Or more likely you are part of the 16% of people who say they check their phones more times than they could possibly count.
Your phone can toy with your emotions
You’re pretty much heartbroken when your phone has been dead or left at home for hours and you turn it on to absolutely no new messages. None. Not even one from your mam!
You feel guilty about how much time you spend together
You feel genuinely bad that you spend so much time on your phone (because you have been called out on it) but you just can't help it. According to the Jurys Inn study, one in five of us feel guilty about how much we use our phones and wish we could kick the habit.
You go on holidays together
You take your phone everywhere, and going on holidays is no exception. You literally couldn’t imagine spending a week away from your beloved smartphone while on holidays.
