It's easy to make jokes about our culture's smartphone addiction but the reality is, there's plenty of evidence to back it up. The latest comes in the form of a recent Gallup poll in which 46 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that they couldn't imagine their life without their smartphone.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the poll found that age was a key determining factor related to smartphone addiction. 51 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 agreed with the statement in question. That figure dropped to just 40 percent among those 65 and older.
When it comes to gender, the poll found that women are universally more bonded to their smartphones than men. What's more, four in 10 respondents said they would experience anxiety if their phone was lost for a day.
Curiously enough, there are plenty of conclusions that can be drawn based on the type of smartphone a person owns. Among iPhone owners, 52 percent felt they couldn't imagine life without a smartphone. Just 43 percent of Android owners agreed with the statement while only 27 percent of BlackBerry / Windows Phone / Other users agreed with it.
This data opens itself up to all sorts of agenda-based interpretations (iPhone users are mostly younger people, BlackBerry users don't love their phones because they are limited and so on) so I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions here.
At the end of the day, however, seven in 10 said they believe their smartphone has made their life better and perhaps that's really all that matters.