With all of the events and sales that happened in the city, I decided it would be better to conduct my social experiment this weekend as opposed to the end of the month.
Turn back time inside your mind to March second, where you delved into the world of smartphones with me; a discussion of disrupted circadian rhythms, ditched daydreaming practices and routine duties ignored. I wanted the experiment to take this topic a bit farther. We know we are addicted to our phones, but how much?
A quick Youtube search on notification experiments will show you the sad truth: we are so addicted to our phones, that when someone else鈥檚 device alerts them of an incoming message, we instinctively reach for our own device. This may be because we share the same notification sound/ringtone, but most often it鈥檚 because addicted phone users suffer from a new disorder known as 鈥淭extiety.鈥�
Textiety is the anxious feeling that comes about from not receiving or being able to send out text messages. 鈥淭extaphrenia鈥� often goes hand-in hand with textiety: feeling a mobile device vibrate/hearing a mobile鈥檚 alerts when it hasn鈥檛. The user constantly checks his/her phone to see if anything has arrived.
I took advantage of a bustling weekend to see if Yorkton users suffer from these feelings. My experiment was to play a common notification sound, in this case the Samsung Whistle, near a subject who had a phone but was not using it. My aim was to see if the subject would pull put their phone and check it, or ignore it and continue on. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Of the 75 people I tested in the Mall and grocery stores around the city, only two people pulled out their phone to check: one middle-aged man and one young woman. The rest ignored my sound completely, or shot me a dirty look for having my phone so loud.
The conclusion I draw for this experiment is that when our residents are out and about, Textiety and Textaphrenia are terms that almost shouldn鈥檛 exist. Men and women, young and old, majority and minorities and rich and poor in our city prefer to take care of the task ahead, rather than be distracted by the device of now. The world in front of us is more important than the world at our fingertips.
However, on the drive home I noticed many drivers nodding their head while driving. Not because they were agreeing with a passenger, but to look at the device lighting up their face. That鈥檚 going to have to be another experiment for another time, a whole 鈥榥other ballgame, so to speak.
To see highlights of my experiment, check out my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/inside.my.head.michaela.miller later in the week. I will be posting a video. Faces are blurred and names will not be mentioned due to privacy and protection. Comment your thoughts about this and other topics on this page so we can take this column out of my head and inside yours.
