Stanford undergrads: iPhones are addictive
Almost half of the 200 students with iPhones polled at Stanford University say they're addicted to the device, with 75 percent admitting they take it to bed.
Do you sleep with your iPhone? A recent survey found a lot of people who do.
Among 200 Stanford University students questioned about their iPhone habits, 75 percent said they fall asleep with their iPhones snuggled next to them. But they're just as attached to their phones in the daytime.
When leaving for school in the morning, 69 percent said they're more likely to forget their wallets than their iPhones. The phone has also pushed aside other devices--84 percent of the students said they use it as their watch and 89 percent use it as an alarm.
But the relationship goes even deeper, at least for some. A quarter of the students said they see the iPhone as an extension of their brain or being. Almost 10 percent said they sometimes pat their iPhone, 3 percent have named it, and 8 percent have suspected at one time that their iPod is jealous of their iPhone.
The iPhone also seems to have an interesting effect on the social lives of the students. Many said their social lives would be affected if their iPhones were lost or damaged. But almost three-quarters admitted that they've used their iPhone to avoid making eye contact with others.
So are these people iPhone-addicted? Many of them think so. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "Yes, I'm addicted," only 6 percent said they definitely weren't. Among the rest, 10 percent gave themselves a 5, while 34 percent rated 4 on the scale. Of all the students, 32 percent said they're worried about becoming iPhone addicts and 25 percent called the phone "dangerously alluring."
But on the positive side, 72 percent said their iPhones make them happier and 37 percent said it makes them more playful. But the biggest benefit seems to be the cool factor, as a majority of the students said that buying the phone simply made them feel cool.
The survey was taken by students in a graduate research methods class at Stanford. Questionnaires were given to 200 randomly selected undergrads at the university in May. All the students interviewed owned iPhones, with 70 percent of them owning one for a year or less.