Apple iPhone found to be addictive, habit-forming, Stanford survey reveals

Apple’s iPhone smartphone can form habits and actually be addictive, according to a new Stanford University survey.

Administered to 200 students with iPhones — 70 percent of whom had owned their iPhones for less than a year — the survey revealed that the iPhone quickly became an essential part of their lives.

Interesting data points from the survey:

• Almost 85 percent of the iPhone owners used the phone as their watch.
• 89 percent used the iPhone as their alarm clock.
• 75 percent said they fell asleep with the iPhone in bed with them.
• 69 percent said they were more likely to forget their wallet than the iPhone.

When asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five, one being not addicted and five being totally addicted — 10 percent ranked themselves as a five and 34 percent ranked themselves as a four.

Just six percent said they weren’t addicted to the iPhone.

Interestingly, 32 percent of those who said they weren’t addicted expressed worry that they would eventually become addicted.

More behavioral data points:

• 15 percent said the iPhone was turning them into a media addict.
• 30 percent called it a “doorway into the world.”
• 25 percent found the phone “dangerously alluring.”
• 41 percent said losing their iPhone would be “a tragedy.”
• Almost 25 percent said the iPhone felt like an extension of their brain or body.
• More than 70 percent said the iPhone made them more organized.
• 54 percent said the iPhone made them more productive.
• 74 percent said the iPhone made them feel cool.

The survey was overseen by Stanford anthropology professor Tanya Luhrmann.

“[The iPhone] had so much personal information that it became a kind of extension of the mind and a means to have a social life,” Luhrmann said to the San Jose Mercury News. “It just kind of captured part of their identity.”

[via LiveScience]