Smartphones Block Out Real World

Fathers, lovers, etc. lost in omnipresent gratification of data
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2010 2:01 PM CST
Smartphones Block Out Real World
Experts say people are obsessed with their smartphones because of the immediate gratification they provide.   (Shutterstock)

Once upon a time, a professor says, we “put up” with the piecemeal flow of information “because we had to,” but now that the world is at our fingertips, it’s hard to resist. Just ask the dad who let a bathtub holding his daughter overflow because he was playing chess on his iPhone. “Dude, this is not appropriate,” he recounts his interior monologue. He then entered a move with one hand and turned off the water with the other.

A recent study of app users shows the largest group to be the “constantly entertained,” those who crave a “fun and entertaining escape.” The problem is that the omnipresent escape has begun to supplant reality, the Washington Post reports. A most egregious incident serves to bring the malady home: a marriage counselor brought in when a husband started fiddling with his smartphone during sex. “I wish I was joking,” she says. (More iPhone stories.)

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