PHANTOM PHONES
Mental health specialists have identified a new psychological phenomenon; phantom phone syndrome (PPS). With what is sometimes referred to as “ringxiety” or “vibranxiety”, smartphone and smartwatch users have become so finelyattuned
to the signal indicating a new message that they have begun to feel their devices vibrate when they are not actually doing so. Some even detect a buzz when their phones have been put away.
Psychologist Michelle Drouin of Purdue University, who has both studied and experienced the phenomenon, suggests people should temporarily distance themselves from their gadgets, removing smartwatches and leaving smartphones at home. “The longer you’re away from your device, the more likely you won’t experience these false signals,” she says. Rather than being classified as hallucination and a mental disorder, researchers instead say PPS is associated with a social mediadriven anxiety or fear of missing out (so-called FOMO).
Geophysics graduate Celeste Labedz, 25, says that when she keeps her smartphone in her back pocket, she senses phantom vibrations all day. “It’s the worst,” she explains. “It’s annoying because I think I’m popular, and I’m getting messages, but I’m not.” A related condition, nomophobia, refers to feelings of terror at not having a working phone. A study at an Iranian university found approximately 50 per cent of a body of 400 medical students experienced PPS, either perceiving non-existent new message alerts or hearing their phone ring when it wasn’t.
The syndrome is thought to be related to phantom limb syndrome, the well-known phenomenon by which persons with an amputated limb still feel pain or other sensation where the limb once was. Dr Robert Rosenberger, a Georgia Institute of Technology philosopher who studies how technology shapes human experience, has himself felt his phone buzz beside him even when it was elsewhere. He described it as “unsettling”, but was relieved to learn that others experienced the same thing. “I had written it off as something that was weird and specific to me, but it’s normal,” he says. “It’s part of the normal experience of having a phone.” Wall Street Journal, 20 Dec 2019.