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People Get Anxious When Disconnected, Finds Study

by Amar Toor on October 15, 2009 at 08:10 AM

You know that pit in your stomach you get when you're out at night, you reach in your pocket for the obligatory, mindless, precautionary cell phone check, and (gasp!) the battery's dead? Or how your hands get all clammy and your mouth turns to the Mojave desert whenever you're trying to check your e-mail, but, for whatever reason, your Internet connection just won't cooperate? Don't worry. You're not alone.

A recent survey shows just how dependent we've become on communications, and reveals that many of us feel "anxious" when disconnected from the Internet or a mobile phone network. The study, undertaken by Future Laboratory for Virgin Media, found that 85-percent of full-time moms are connected to the Internet all day, and that a third of all surveyed didn't feel "guilty" about having their cell phones or computers turned on at all times. In fact, full-time parents were the most likely to be connected, with about 49-percent saying that they keep their digital TV roaring throughout the day. This demographic also uses cell phones more often than any other. Siobhan Freegard, co-founder of the parenting social network Netmums, rationalizes that statistic by pointing out that new mothers, in particular, "are confined to the house for quite long periods," and that Internet and cell phone connectivity is their primary "link to the outside world."



It's not only mothers, though, who feel antsy without a laptop or phone. A whopping 36-percent of all people surveyed said they felt nervous about losing touch with family when their connection disappears, while 29-percent described a sense of liberation. Interestingly -- but not shockingly -- 29-percent said they felt anxious about being disconnected at work, while only slightly less, 28-percent, said they felt freer.

We don't really think this is all that surprising, but it also kinda depends on how we define "anxious." Of course, everyone feels a bit uncomfortable when their phones dies, or when their wireless connection comes down with a case of the fuzzies. No one likes to be disconnected from the world, and heavy dependence on anything makes the withdrawals that much more difficult. But there's a big difference between feeling a little uneasy, and straight flipping out. [From: The Telegraph]

Tags: anxiety, cell phone, CellPhone, connectivity, internet, internet addiction, InternetAddiction, study, top

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