Have you ever had the experience of phantom phone calls or messages? Are you convinced that you felt the phone vibrate in your pocket, or that you heard a ringing tone. But when you check, it turns out that nobody actually tried to contact you.
In this case, you begin to ask the question: "Do I have problems with the phone or are the calls only fantasizing?" Well, that could probably be a sign of how attached you are to your phone.
Phone addiction?
At least you are not alone. More than 80 percent of the students surveyed by scientists have experienced this. But if this happens much more often than once a day, then it could be a sign that you are psychologically addicted to your smartphone.
There is no doubt that mobile phones are a part of social life in many parts of the world, and some people may not be out of touch for hours. A research team recently found that most people fill their waiting time with their phone. Others get distracted by the phone even in the middle of a call. And most people will check their smartphones within 10 seconds of waiting in line for coffee or upon arriving at their destination.
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Clinicians and researchers are still debating whether excessive use of mobile phones or other technology can lead to addiction. It was not included in the latest update to DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association's Guidelines for the Classification and Diagnosis of Mental Disorders.
But given the ongoing debate, scientists decided to test whether phantom calls and messages could shed light on this issue.
A virtual drug?
Addiction is a pathological condition in which people compulsively seek rewarding stimuli despite negative consequences. We often hear reports that cell phone use can lead to problems in developing healthy relationships and effective social skills.
One of the features of addiction is that people become hypersensitive to cues related to the reward they crave. Either way, they start seeing him everywhere. So maybe people who are hungry for messages and notifications from their virtual social worlds are doing the same? Could they mistakenly think they hear a ringtone, a phone vibration in their pocket, or even see a notification on the phone screen when in fact none of it?
Faults in human work
Scientists decided to clarify this issue. They used the test, which is conducted to determine the measure of problems associated with a mobile phone, but selected from it only those items that assessed psychological dependence on a smartphone. They also created questions about the frequency of phantom calls, vibration and notifications. The researchers then conducted an online survey of over 750 students.
Those participants who showed a greater dependence on the phone (they increasingly use their smartphone to feel better, become irritable when they cannot use it, and think about their phone when they do not have it with them) had more frequent phantom calls …
Mobile phone manufacturers and telephony service providers reassure that phantom calls have nothing to do with technology problems. Thus, they are the product of "human malfunction."
What is the interest of studying phantom calls
But where exactly does our body go wrong? We are in a brave new world of virtual socialization, with the psychological and social sciences barely keeping pace with advances in technology.
Phantom calls can generate relatively little interest. But they raise questions about how much we rely on our phones and what impact they have on our social life.
How can we move to using mobile phones to maximize benefits and minimize risks, whether it's improving our own mental health or hone living social skills? What other new technologies will change the way we interact with other people?
Our mind will continue to be on standby.
Anna Pismenna