There’s this hunk of plastic and silicon sitting on my desk right now that I’d hike a mountain to find signal for. Yes, it’s my smartphone. It’s such an integral part of my life, that if I lost it, I’d be pretty damn lost myself.
Security company Kaspersky, in a rather fitting study, noted that one out of three consumers feel the same, and are “willing to ditch their friends for their smartphone.”
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The study was conducted at the universities of Würzburg and Nottingham Trent on behalf of Kaspersky. So the results are from people who likely know a thing or two about Instagram.
“An experiment, which asked participants to rate various people and objects in their lives in order of importance, has discovered that 37% of participants rate their smartphone as more, or equally, important as their close friends,” suggests Kaspersky in a press release.
If that’s not sad enough, 29% suggested that their smartphones are more important than their parents, while 17% suggested that the device is as important as their partners.
Astrid Carolus, a media psychologist at the University of Würzburg, explains these answers are trending positively towards our digital friends:
Our phones are an integral part of our lives, and this study brings psychological proof of this. Our friend-like connection with our smartphones means that we place an incredible degree of trust in an inanimate object – so much so, that we consider it a closer and more important element of our lives than many other people.
While Kaspersky was quick to point out that 93% of respondents were open to giving friends their pass codes, we’re just happy that at least some level of human interaction still takes place, even if it’s over a four digit number that could jeopardize their device’s security.
For a more granular look at the results, hit up this link.
