Smartphone addiction is slowly being accepted as a real thing. We, as a society, are spending more and more time on our phones to the point that they’ve virtually become extensions of our bodies. Smartphones are essential for us to do our jobs and connect with the people we care about. But could our devices be owning us instead of us owning them? Have they become the center of our existence?
To find out if you’re overdependent on your phone, take this quiz devised by the director of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, psychologist Dr. David Greenfield.
1. Do you find yourself spending more time on your smartphone than you realize?
2. Do you find yourself mindlessly passing time on a regular basis by staring at your smartphone even when there might be better or more productive things to do?
out if you're addicted to your mobile gadget.
3. Do you seem to lose track of time when on your smartphone?
4. Do you find yourself spending more time with texting, tweeting, or emailing as opposed to talking to real-time people?
5. Has the amount of time you spend on your smartphone been increasing?
6. Do you secretly wish you could be a little less wired or connected to your smartphone?
7. Do you sleep with your smartphone ON under your pillow or next to your bed regularly?
8. Do you find yourself viewing and answering texts, tweets, and emails at all hours of the day and night—even when it means interrupting other things you are doing?
9. Do you text, email, tweet or surf while driving or doing other similar activities that require your focused attention and concentration?
10. Do you feel your use of smartphone actually decreases your productivity at times?
11. Do you feel reluctant to be without your smartphone, even for a short time?
12. When you leave the house you ALWAYS have your smartphone with you and you feel ill-at-ease or uncomfortable when you accidentally leave your smartphone in the car or at home, or you have no service, or it is broken?
13. When you eat meals is your smartphone always part of the table place setting?
14. When your phone rings, beeps, buzzes do you feel an intense urge to check for texts, tweets or emails, updates, etc.?
15. Do you find yourself mindlessly checking your phone many times a day even when you know there is likely nothing new or important to see?
The quiz says that answering yes to more than five of the 15 questions means that you could have a problem and should probably start logging less phone time—just like this writer, who answered 10 yeses.
(Reference: virtual-addiction.com)