Mobile pacers and ass scratchers

What different creatures we are on the phone.  My nephew Richard paces frantically while on his mobile.  If in a house he enters and exits every room as he talks.  In our two bedroom flat he marched up and down the living room restricted only by the walls at each end.  I am reminded of Richard because below me on the rocks here in Malta I see another pacer on his phone.  He is also on his mobile but is bare footed.  Despite the pain of the hot sharp rocks, I recognise his tip toeing awkward stance as he attempts to cover distance with his phone to his ear.

Has there been a study I wonder of phone habits?  One girl on the bus, headset in place, held her phone like a soup plate under her lower lip.  It was an odd position but it was hers.  On my flight to Northern Ireland this summer a young Goth girl used her mobile as a mirror for almost the entire journey.  Picking up tiny strands of her fringe, straightening it and then placing it in microscopically different positions.  Each adjustment was examined in her iPhone to check for effect.  It was a nervous condition; I’m sure, as she did it for almost three hours.  I was more concerned that all her nail beds were infected with huge weeping blisters.  At such times I feel Easy jet is taking real chances with our health by insisting on cramming us in like greasy sardines.

I have one son who has to scratch his ass while talking on the phone.  He hardly notices but it is a compulsion.  We all have our own, I fear.  I saw a young lady hugging her phone like a baby to her ear, using both hands.  She caresses the receiver as if the caller will feel the extra attention bestowed.  In case you feel this is unusual a recent study found that

“The users who we observed touching their phone’s screens or buttons held their phones in three basic ways:”

·       one handed—49%

·       cradled—36%

·       two handed—15%

So her cradled approach is the second favourite method of holding the mobile. 

In London, I noticed a young business finance type, headset in place, strutting along the street with a definite swagger.  Pausing at times to raise one finger to an earpiece and bellow his recent triumphs to all and sundry. 

Tourists no longer lie on sun loungers listening to music, instead they paw their screen with two fingers, texting, reading, responding.  In amazing places but connected umbilically to this lifeline.  

Couples sit across romantic tables mobiles on the table, checking their screen.  Conversations, when they happen at all, are interjected with vibrations, pings, music and each one causes a response.  Different in each but always accompanied by that contented look, someone wants me.  I am needed, linked, not forgotten.  

The mobile phone has become an addiction we cannot live without.  A recent study found that

84% worldwide say they couldn’t go a single day without their mobile device in their hand.

What does all this mean?  We are beginning to understand how addiction influences other aspects of our lives.  Academic studies http://file.scirp.org/Html/36417.html (Open Journal of Preventive  Medicine) suggest that Internet addiction is associated with loneliness and mobile phone dependence in students.  Other found that sleep quality worsens with increasing addiction level.  

The more one reads the more disturbing it is to see how technology has so quickly influenced cultural norms/relationships and even family dynamics.  It would appear mobile pacers, ass scratchers are just symptoms of a much deeper malaise.