We like our smartphones more than our colleagues

SMARTPHONES have become more important in our daily lives than neighbours, colleagues, flatmates and teachers, research has shown.

Only family, friends and pets rank higher than our phones in terms of importance, psychologists at Nottingham Trent University and Germany’s University of Wurzburg discovered. They asked 1,156 men and women aged from 15 to 83 to complete an online survey rating both people and devices for importance and closeness.

They found parents and children were the most important to us and teachers were at the bottom of the list. Astrid Carolus, one of the co-authors of the research, said that phones had become ‘psychologically relevant entities’. ‘They accompany their users throughout the day, ever-ready to fulfil tasks, like communication with friends and family,’ she said.

‘To its owner, the smartphone is not mere technical equipment but rather a digital companion.

‘Because the medium seems to communicate with us, we unconsciously react in a way we react as if it was a human being.’ Her team says mobiles have become our constant companions, with 65 per cent of British owners under 35 looking at them within five minutes of waking up, and spending nearly three hours a day using them.

Rated below phones were flatmates and laptops, classmates, colleagues, TV and radio, neighbours and telephones.

Dr Carolus said the research suggests man is adapting to technology in order to survive in the modern age.

‘In our ancestors’ world, social interactions and the processing of information were essential for survival,’ says Dr Carolus.

‘In contrast to our ancestors’ world, in which those sending social cues were actual humans, today’s electronic devices send similar signals, by talking to us.’