It has become almost impossible to find a public place where someone is not checking his or her smartphone. This shows how people are becoming more and more dependent on smartphones. What’s even more surprising is that use of smartphones has even become a regular part of private moments. According to a recently conducted survey, people have started using these mobile devices in some of the most bizarre situations. The data collected during the survey suggest that a large number of people feel the need of checking their smartphones when having sex, inside the toilet, and at times even when a funeral is underway.

The said survey was conducted by iPass, an eminent mobile connectivity company. The survey had over 1,700 participants from Europe and the United States, each of whom had to answer a series of questions pertaining to their connectivity expectations, preferences, and habits. The data obtained showed that people have become excessively reliant on smartphones, particularly Wi-Fi. This dependence has become so intense that users have started breaking social etiquette for using these mobile devices.

Patria Hume, iPass’ chief commercial officer, stated that an individual can feel nervous before his/her first date or when making a major presentation, but these days people are becoming anxious just by thinking about a possibility that they might lose the Wi-Fi connection on their phone. This anxiousness is forcing them to forget social etiquette just for the sake of using smartphone.

The past few years have seen technology, especially smartphones, become an integral part of human lives. Today, there’s virtually no situation that can stop a person from looking at his or her phone. The survey by iPass revealed that as much as 7 percent of the participants check their mobile phones when having sex. Additionally, 72 percent and 11 percent respectively look at their phones in the toilet and when attending a funeral. What’s more, almost 65 percent of the participants stated that they become nervous if they are not connected to Wi-Fi. Many also admitted that they don’t hesitate to give up various activities and items just to have a connection.

Among the participants, as much as 61 percent said that they will not be able to live without Wi-Fi connection. Surprisingly, the percentage was higher than the percentage of people who said that they will not be able to live without junk food (42%), smoking (41%), sex (58%), drugs (31%), or alcohol (33%). Twenty-five percent of the respondents admitted that they will pick Wi-Fi connection over a shower or bath. On the other hand, as much as 19 percent were found to be ready to give up human contact for Wi-Fi.

Based on the information obtained during the survey, Ms. Hume stated that mobile professionals can’t live without Wi-Fi and think that it’s more difficult to give up Wi-Fi than other addictive habits like junk food or smoking.

This is not the first time that a study has shown how people have started to give up the pleasure of real-life social interactions for spending time on their smartphones. The year 2013 saw Harris Interactive carry out a study on mobile consumer habits. It revealed that as much as 20 percent of individuals aged between 18 and 34 years look at their smartphone when having sex. What’s more, almost 75 percent of the people participating in the study informed that they always have their phones within a 5 feet distance.

Smartphones have also been found to be one of the major causes of inattention. A study conducted on more than 7,000 teenagers in China revealed a strong correlation between inattention and cell phone usage. The said study, which was carried out in 2014, also showed that restricting daily cell phone usage below an hour increased focus in children. Another study conducted in 2015 found that spending more time on phone can cause temporary inattentional deafness. This happens because users get severely distracted by a visual stimuli i.e. their phone and fail to hear any sound, loud or mild.

Let’s come back to the habit of checking phone when having sex. During a 2016 study, a group of university researchers tested the smartphone usage habit of 221 students. One in every ten of those students admitted that they are so dependent on their smartphone that they cannot prevent themselves from checking it even during sex.

Information collected during the study couldn’t specify how those students manage to look at their phone during those intimate moments. The participants didn’t reveal whether their partner knows that they check their social media accounts and enjoy sex simultaneously. It’s also not known whether the users give updates about their sex session on their social media pages. What’s more, no one even specified how long they check their smartphone for when having sex. However, the researchers clearly stated that users tend to look at their phone when having sex and not during their post-coital hug.

According to the study, on average humans spend almost a couple of hours on their smartphone every day. Like the iPass study, this one also suggests that people are becoming more and more unmindful of social etiquettes. This has been confirmed from the study’s findings which suggest that 95 percent of the people use their phones when attending social gatherings. The study even suggests that smartphone is making people less professional. It revealed that as much as 70 percent of people check their phones when working.

The study was headed by University of Virginia’s psychology research scientist Kostadin Kushlev. He was assisted by researchers from the University of British Columbia.

When speaking about the findings of the study, Kushlev stated that just around a decade back Steve Jobs said that smartphones would change the world and that’s what we are witnessing today. Smartphones have brought internet into our pockets; we can now get notifications about text messages, emails, social media posts and updates, news irrespective of our location. Kushlev and his team carried out the study to find out how the constant flow of information and notifications is influencing human minds.

Kushlev’s study also suggested that smartphones can be responsible for causing more serious hyperactivity and inattention, which happen to be signs of ADHD. The researchers believe that the best way of fighting these issues is by reducing phone usage. This can be done either by keeping the device switched off for a specific period of time or by turning notifications off.

Landline telephones were an indispensable part of our lives till the late nineties. Although its value has now been reduced to that of an obsolete object, at that point of time, it had an entirely different appeal. It was not merely an object back then, but rather an artifact that elevated our emotions and compelled us to contemplate and retrospect about our old selves.

But what is the value of a landline telephone now? What happens when a particular object, that was once indispensable for an entire generation, loses its purpose and value? Well, these are the questions and psychological probing that Rachel Hanlon explores in her ‘Call Me’ art series that has been exhibited in the Etch Gallery in Geelong, Australia. The ones who are old enough to recall the pop songs from the eighties will definitely happen to remember pop artist Blondie’s song ‘Call me’ as they view the works of Hanlon.

Rachel Hanlon is a budding artist, exploring the field of media archeology. Through her works, she delves into the intricacies of the true relevance of a landline telephone in the modern society, while reflecting on her personal attachment with the telephone. The ‘Call Me’ art series is replete with metaphors and multi layered symbolism that reinterprets the obsolete technologies that have been intensified by our cultural dependence on them. The relevance of a telephone and its relationship with the changing times, rituals and culture, cements its value as an object that once reflected our cultural voice.

One of the most remarkable works from the series, ‘Off the Hook‘ is a beautiful installation of bright and resplendent handles that are modeled on the classic shape of the outdated telephone. Viewers can pick up the handsets and listen to the several messages recorded by anonymous people on Rachel’s answering machine. These messages range between stunning recitals, narrations of dreams, snippets of childhood, quotes from movies and contemplations over the true meaning of life. The messages play on a low volume and it appears as if the phones have been kept ‘off the hook’. The work was prompted when Rachel could not understand why she couldn’t renounce her age-old landline telephone, even though it did not have any useful role in her life.

In another similar work, viewers can observe old and classic landline handles from the private collection of the artist that has been arranged on the plinths of the gallery walls. In this installation, Rachel explores the transformation of a useful object into an obsolete item.

“Can someone get that” is the final work from the ‘Call me’ series where three obsolete landline handles have been set on a vintage telephone table. This installation pinpointed that space of our homes that was specifically set aside for attending phone. It was a space that was aloof from the problems and possibilities of the mundane domestic life. As the phones rung, we used to feel compelled to answer them. Here, Rachel has incorporated several phone conversations from movies that have been transcribed, voiced and finally revamped to come up with a new narrative. A video projection of these telephone tables further highlights the mode of narration and the varied conventions that were associated with the old landline handle. It also reflects on the repetitive nature of dialing with the help of the rotary dial.

By rendering an experience with which the viewer can once again connect and interact with the re-animated, originally in-animate object, these series of artwork aim to rekindle a range of emotions within the viewer, affirming of the existing relationship between the passage of time and the appeal of the concerned object. The re-animation in this existing work will also reflect on a re-interpretation of the varying cultural perspectives by closely observing the passage of time, our transforming selves and the changing rituals.

The exhibition will amuse anyone who has been enchanted by the classic romance of the age-old telephone handle. It is also bound to rekindle a plethora of memories and emotions about the old landline telephone. Communication technology is an inherent part of our changing culture. With the rapid transformation of this technology, this exhibition pays a tribute to every such technology that is now obsolete but also considered as the archive’s function. And, as rightly stated at https://artingeelong.com/2014/02/03/call-me-installation-by-rachel-hanlon/, ‘For those who like to dig a little deeper, there are many layers to explore in this carefully considered work.’

Honorable Mentions