Checking phone is par for course at dinner time

MOST people cannot make it through a meal without checking their mobile phones, research from Yougov found.

According to a survey of more than 2,000 people, 55 per cent said they checked their phone during dinner, while 53per cent said they looked at their phone even when dining out with friends or family.

Such is our addiction to mobile devices that more than half (54per cent) said they could not go more than two days without their phone before it bothered them, and one in five said they could not cope being without their phone for four hours.

In a bid to tackle the growing dependence on electronic devices, several national campaigns, such as Scroll Free September, were launched to help users cut down on their use and raise awareness on their addictive nature.

Google and Apple have responded to the growing debate about the impact of mobile phone use on public health by introducing usage tracking tools in an effort to improve digital wellbeing.

Last month, Apple launched a new feature designed to limit screen time, especially in children. The software update was intended to allow users to track and limit the time they spend online to counter smartphone addiction, but hacks were quickly found to bypass the feature, including manually changing the time on a device.

The negative impact of staying in contact with your device has been well documented, especially when using social media. 5Rights, a children’s charity founded by Baroness Kidron, earlier this year said social media was so addictive for children that the Government should classify it as “social harm”.

The research was carried out to mark Yougov’s partnership with The Future Starts Here exhibition at the V&A museum, in London, which examines Britain’s increasing addiction to mobile devices and how it is changing human interaction.

Russell Feldman, director of digital, media and technology research at Yougov said: “It will have escaped no one’s notice that smartphones are taking over our lives. Across the land, the sight of heads bowed over small screens is now ubiquitous.

“We can only speculate on the impact this is having in terms of our relationships with colleagues, friends and even close family. But our survey does suggest that traditional conversations are being discarded, in favour of checking our latest email, notification or message.”

The Yougov research also found that almost half of those surveyed admitted to checking their device when waking up in the middle of the night, despite sleep issues having been linked to the blue light emitted by phone screens.