Should Your Smartphone Come With A Health Warning?

I’ve had a smartphone since the days of the iPhone 3GS, and I’ve never looked back once. Not surprisingly, I do most everything on my iPhone – email, music, set up appointments, web research, text, you name it. Oh, I almost forgot – I also occasionally use it to call someone. I can’t imagine not having a smartphone, and I am by no means alone; it’s almost as if they’ve become an extra appendage to our bodies. While no one would deny their usefulness and convenience, there are some out there who believe smartphones should come with a health warning label. The reason? A study from Derby University shows that they can become addictive (big surprise there!) and can bring out narcissistic tendencies in their users.

In their study, they found that 13% of the people they surveyed were completely addicted to their phones, and that their average time spent using their smartphones was 3.6 hours a day. If you add that number up throughout the week, it adds up to 25.2 hours – a whole day spent on the phone.

It isn’t really a big surprise to me to read about the “narcissistic behaviors” since selfies are so popular – we spend hours of time taking the perfect pictures of our faces. Many also spend hours making sure they have the perfect Facebook page – complete with the best pictures and status updates.

[Image via Guardianlv]

SOURCE: The Guardian