Last updated April 12, 2019
There is a new social phenomenon in the United States, and that phenomenon has a name – “mobile affinity”. A new study suggests that users of new and old cell phones are becoming attached to their gadgets in an emotional manner normally reserved for actual living things such as pets.
A researcher from Kansas State University carried out a survey in which no less than 99 per cent of those who responded admitted to owning a cell phone, and that the entertainment quality of the cell phone has become a source of joy and even pride akin to that of owning a pet, and that that entertainment and joy is more of a reason for the ownership than that of communication.
“The cell phone’s no longer just a cell phone – it’s become the way we communicate and a part of life,” says Kansas State University researcher in both technology and marketing, Esther Swilley. In the course of the study, Swilley took note of how students at her marketing course at the university responded to their cell phones and then surveyed them on their attitude to the gadgets. That 99 per cent owned a cell phone was no surprise to Swilley. “Actually, I’m surprised this wasn’t 100 per cent,” she says. “People share other devices like computers, but cell phones are an interesting thing because we each have our own. That individual ownership is a really big deal for people.”