Most of us have formed a precious bond with our smartphones; after all, they’ve gotten us through some of life’s most lacklustre and awkward times.
See someone you know across the street but don’t want to engage in small talk? Is your dinner table filled with uninvited awkward silences? Are you bored out of your mind and have no idea where to look in the MTR without either looking like a creep or like you’ve zoned out? Your smartphone’s got your back.
So understandably, when your little electronic companion slips from your hands and lands face down on the sidewalk, your soul may also feel like it’s being crushed into a million pieces.
Others might discredit your pain, but a new study from HKU in collaboration with protective phone case company OtterBox has revealed that your body creates an actual stress response when faced with the fear of losing or dropping your phone.
During the study, 24 participants were monitored for their heart rate, respiration rate, finger pulse and cortisol (a hormone released by the body when facing danger or under stress) concentration levels when faced with stressors like being exposed to loud noises, public speaking, and completing a task under a strict deadline (our personal nemesis).
Out of all the stressors, phone dropping caused participants’ heart rates to increase by three times more than other stressors, with an average increase in heart rate of 15 percent.
Cortisol concentration levels increased at an average of 32 percent when compared to normal resting levels, while subjects respired four times faster when their phones were dropped than when giving a speech to a group of strangers.
It turns out that women are generally more unflappable than men (at least in this regard), as female subjects’ cortisol levels increased by an average of 16 percent when their phones were dropped in front of them, while male subjects’ average cortisol levels rose by an average of 22 percent.
Dr. Chia-huei Tseng from HKU’s department of psychology, who led the study, said, “We were really surprised by the results. […] Half of our subjects’ salivary levels increased 15 percent when they saw their phone being dropped, than when asked to give a public speech.” Sexy.
This study has just confirmed what we already suspected: that we are way, way too dependent on our phones. Til death do us part… or you know, until the next model comes along.
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