Do you suffer from iPhone separation anxiety?
Now there's proof -- not being able to be near your iPhone or answer it because you're otherwise engaged causes a measurable increase in anxiety as well as decreased cognition. A study published yesterday in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication titled "The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, and Physiology" shows that "negative psychological and physiological outcomes are associated with iPhone separation and the inability to answer one's ringing iPhone during cognitive tasks".
The study, by Russell B. Clayton, Glenn Leshner and Anthony Almond, showed that:
The data tell an interesting and unique story about how iPhone separation and the inability to answer one's iPhone during cognitive tasks affects a variety of psychological outcomes. The data showed that the inability to answer one's iPhone while it was ringing activated the aversive motivational system (increases in heart rate and unpleasantness), and also led to a decline in cognitive performance. In addition, physiological levels of anxiety (blood pressure) increased in response to iPhone separation (i.e., acute stressor, Spielberger, 1979). It is interesting to note that self-reported feelings of unpleasantness and anxiety reflected participants' physiological responses such that perceived levels of unpleasantness and anxiety were greatest during iPhone separation. In contrast, when participants completed word-search puzzles with their iPhone in their possession, heart rate and blood pressure levels returned to baseline and cognitive performance increased.
The team studied the effects of iPhone separation on a sample of 40 users by having them try to solve word search puzzles while separated from their iPhones or unable to answer a ringing iPhone. The study findings show
that cellphone users are capable of perceiving their iPhone as an object of their extended self, which can be negatively impacted (i.e., lessening of self) during separation.
I know that neither my wife nor I can leave our house without iPhones in hand, and that we've often had to drive back to our home to pick up an iPhone if we've inadvertently left it behind. How about you, TUAW readers? Does not having your iPhone around or not being able to answer it cause you distress? Let us know in the comments.
