New Term Coined For Those Who Can’t Put The Phone Down: ‘Smartphoniacs’

Social Media And Smartphones

Smartphoniacs are described as people who take their phone to the restroom; send messages when driving and at all hours of the day and night; and are people who make excuses for rudely typing away on their device during conversations or meetings.

This class of smartphone users span just the top 10 percent of all smartphone users — who just can’t pull themselves away from the phone, reports the WSJ, which writes about the phenomenon in a column designed to look at micro trends that can lead to sweeping changes within an industry. It sounds like smartphones falls into this category, as it only takes three million people, or 1 percent of the U.S., to create new markets or spark a social movement.

If this is indeed true, then perhaps the moment that the wireless industry has been waiting is within reach — that is, the time when U.S. consumers discover that the phone can be used for a lot more than talking.

The reason why it can be considered a condition, the article says, is because people’s poor cellphone behaviors go way beyond bad manners. “It’s much more the result of a deeper disconnect anxiety, an irrepressible fear that you will miss something if you put it away,” it says.

The smartphoniacs’ demographic ranges from the successful and powerful to busy professionals, teenagers and college students. The commonality is that they all communicate incessantly. But we’ll soon know much more…the University of Florida to currently conducting a study to figure out how pervasive the condition is, and who the biggest offenders are.

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