Apple has “sold more than 217 million iPhones worldwide and sparked a commercial, cultural and — most surprising — behavioral revolution, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its June 25 issue,” Peter Burrows reports for Bloomberg.
“According to a study of medical workers at the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, 76 percent said they’ve experienced ‘phantom vibration,’ that insistent buzz from an imagined text or phone call,” Burrows reports. “Scientists speculate it’s the result of random nerves firing, biochemical noise that our brains tuned out until they were reconditioned by the iPhone.”
Burrows reports, ““The iPhone has changed everything about how we relate to technology, for both good and bad,” said Larry Rosen, a psychologist and professor who is the author of iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us [US$11.99 via Apple’s iBookstore]. According to his research, almost 30 percent of people born after 1980 feel anxious if they can’t check Facebook Inc.’s website every few minutes. Others repeatedly pat their pockets to make sure their smartphones are still there… ‘The great thing about the iPhone is that we carry it with us all day long,’ Rosen said. ‘The bad part is that we carry it with us all day long.'”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, Facebook? Pfft. Phantom vibrations? Not so much. But, we have to admit, we have patted our pockets more than once to make sure our iPhones were still where we left them. Oh, Steeeve, what have you done to us?!
I have noticed the phantom vibrations myself
I’ve felt a buzz in my right upper thigh where my iphone usually sits in my pocket several times over last 4 years. I thought I was loosing it so this article is oddly comforting.
I get the same phantom vibrations – then I go to reach for the phone and it’s not there… guess I have 2 out of the 3 symptoms… I’ve been able to stay Facebook free… (you’ll never get me, you bastards!)
“I’m feelin’ those good vibrations…”
sorry! 😎
I’ve felt these, although usually its vibrations from something else entirely and my brain just assumed ‘iPhone’. In the vehicle, or while riding the neighbor’s wife.
It is absolutely there. I am as down to earth as possible, but I ofter feel muscle vibrations where the iPhone is. Since I am not very popular I KNOW it is not the phone vibrating….
I’m not alone!
This is not an iPhone phenomenon, I used to do the pocket patting thing with My Nokia years ago. The difference is, it used to be wishful thinking that some girl had messaged me. These days it’s just to reassure me that the new love of my life is still in my pocket!
God, I’m a sad case.
Or a gun. That one you don’t want to leave at home.
My wife has phantom vibrations but not from here phone. 😉
Yeah, hundreds of millions of people had cell phones years before the iPhone was released. This is a cell phone related issue, not specific to the iPhone.
This reminds me of people blaming the iPod for people wearing headphones and “disconnecting”, despite the fact that portable cassette and CD players had been just as prevalent for decades.
BTW, I also get the phantom buzzes. As the article points out, these are not new, but people being attuned to them is new.
I’m a doctor and I’ve definitely experienced periodic phantom vibrations that I could swear were from my iPhone, but I check and they’re not. It’s the weirdest thing, and sometimes I’ve set the phone nearby and it isn’t even in my pocket!
It doesn’t happen a lot or frequently, but it’s definitely real and one of the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced as I could swear it is the exact same sensation as the phone.
Agreed, same here. But less so with the iPhone 4S than with the 3G and the original. But then the 4S has such an anemic vibration I’ve probably recovered from iDisorder. Next time it happens I’ll update my Facebook status 😉
I have experienced this and it feels just exactly like my iPhone is vibrating in my pocket. I reach for it and find it is not there! I thought it was extremely strange. It does not happen when my iPhone is in my pocket, only when it is not. Strange.
People have been getting phantom vibrations since pagers first vibrated. I got them with my featureless phone. It has nothing to do with th iPhone specifically.
No, but the huge click bait for apple haters drives your hit count up dramatically if you blame things on the iPhone, so “journalists” just can’t resist.
I get the phantom vibrations, too!
Me too 🙁
i have experienced this too. now i feel a little less crazy.
Ohh god and i thought i was crazy as hell. Well guess not….i think. Movin’ on, sometimes besides the vibrating i hear the sms tone and there’s nothing there. Effing weird. The facebook part not even close. Sometimes i have almost 30status updates / messages pending for me to read, yeah right, as if. Lol
Wow. I thought it just me.
But what about this part…?
“almost 30 percent of people born after 1980 feel anxious if they can’t check Facebook Inc.’s website every few minutes”
!!! If that is anywhere close to true, it’s unutterably pathetic! Even if it’s THREE percent, I can barely believe it. Wow! Get a life!
Believe it. And you’re right, it is pathetic.
I once worked for an outfit that was acquired by IBM and my job required me to travel extensively to London. It was amazing when visitors came to meetings; the first thing they did when they got to our floor was to grab a terminal and check their PROFS account. Same thing at break time and lunch. PROFS was the 80s version of internal email and these people’s lives depended on it. No pagers, no cell phones, just PROFS. And now it’s f/b.
Do you also get phantom orgasms with phantom vibrations?
well it’s an expensive tool, sought by thieves, seems pretty normal to pat your pocket to ensure it’s there. big deal, I do the same thing with my billfold.
…and my girlfriend’s ass.
Unless we’re all getting Parkinson’s… a phantom phone vibration is sometimes an early symptom of that nasty.
ugh…..the phantom vibration thing drives me crazy
Add me to the “I thought it was just me” list. I get them all the time and often keep the phone out of my pocket for this very reason.
A cell phone/ smart phone ( brand doesn’t matter) gives people a sense of security and power. It allows us instant communication and gratification to the world. Most people are starved for affection and attention and a smart phone allows them to interact with people no matter where they are and or where cellular service is available. The phone makes people feel like they they belong to something bigger. Plus it great when your car breaks down and you don’t have to walk to a pay phone……..are there still pay phones?
Yea, I pay for my phone every month! 😉
Everyone knows this phantom issue is ONLY related to an iPhone.
Editor – We need you to write a story that gets clicks.
Writer – I – I don’t have a story. How about telling customers what features they can look forward to in the new . . .
Editor – No, no! That wold do. Write a story about, er, medical problems people are having now that they are using these newfangled things. And use the word iPhone as many times as you can, nobody clicks on stories about those other things.
Writer – Okay boss, coming right up!
It just shows how humans and technology are merging. Some day we will be just like the “Borg” don’t doubt it. The Biological and Technological will become one!
Hope not, I do NOT want the hive mind to know what I’m thinking when I look at that girl across the room!
I can attest to this. I’ll have my phone on mute with no vibration , but I’ll look at the phone just as a call is coming in.
I occasionally do the pocket pat, thats about it. I also do that for my car keys so…hmmm guess I’m addicted to keys too.
There was a study years ago about Blackberries and phantom vibrations. No news here, just wannabe headline grabbers.
I have been calling it “Transient sub dermal vibrosis” for years.
It started with my Motorola flip phones which were the first ones I could comfortably fit in my pockets.
So TSV is common, good to know.
I get phantom vibrations. I keep my phone on silent most of the time though, so fortunately I don’t get phantom ringtones.
This isn’t new. Back in the old western days people felt the same way but instead of an iPhone it was a Colt .45