Famous Sad Love Quotes: How mobile 'addiction' led us to lose our manners... and a fifth of us use phones on the loo

Thursday, August 4, 2011

How mobile 'addiction' led us to lose our manners... and a fifth of us use phones on the loo

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By Liz Thomas

Last updated at 9:10 AM on 4th August 2011

They have become the must-have gadgets of the decade, revolutionising how we access information on the move.

But smartphones have turned Britain into a nation of mobile addicts, research shows. Regulator Ofcom found that 60 per cent of teenagers and more than a third of adults are 'highly addicted' to using their mobile phones.

And our addiction is taking its toll on manners. A quarter of adults and a third of teenagers said they used mobiles during meal times.

Did you ask to leave the table? A quarter of adults questioned said they use their phones during meal times

Around a fifth of teenagers and adults said they use their phones where they have been told not to, such as in libraries.

Even the bathroom and toilet are no longer off limits, with 22 per cent of adults and half the teenagers polled admitting they use their phones there.
Half of those now sold were smartphones, such as iPhones, BlackBerries or Androids.

These devices allow consumers to make calls, text, access their emails and use social networking sites and the internet on the move.

They can also be used to take, store and share pictures and videos and to download music and video clips.

Office workers have long dubbed such phones 'crackberries', after the BlackBerry smartphone, because of the addictive pull of checking emails at all hours.

James Thickett, Ofcom director of market research, said the phones were 'changing social etiquette'. He said: 'Technology is now driving our values.

'It is not just children answering the phone in theatres or libraries. It is adults as well.

'People are looking at smartphones as something that provides for their every technological need. They are blurring the boundaries between work and home.'

The research was based on a survey of more than 2,000 Britishadults and 500 teenagers aged 12 to 15.

Children's campaigners and charities have raised concerns about the growing ease with which children and young teenagers can access adult material through the internet on their phones.