People would rather give up sex and vacations than their smartphones

It's no secret that we love our smartphones, but did you know that some Dutch people are so addicted to their devices that they'd rather give up sex, vacations, or even a finger than their phone? According to a study by research firm Motivaction, one in three Dutch people would rather never have sex again than lose their smartphone, and for young people aged 18 to 24, that number is even higher at a whopping 49 percent!

Mobile phones were first introduced to the main public in the early 1980s. The first commercially available mobile phone was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, which was released in 1983. However, due to their high cost and limited coverage area, mobile phones were initially considered a luxury item and were only used by a small percentage of the population. It wasn't until the 1990s, with the advent of digital cellular technology and the development of smaller, more affordable phones, that mobile phones became widely available and popular.

If you had told people in the 1990s that some people would give up sex over a phone, they would have thought you were absolutely crazy. But it gets even more fascinating than this. The study also revealed that four in ten women would give up sex before their phone, while two in ten men would make the same choice. And it's not just sex - one in six Dutch people would rather lose a finger than be without their phone, and for young people, that number jumps to one in three.

But what about vacations? Would you give up your phone for a relaxing getaway? Apparently, three in ten Dutch people would rather ditch their vacations than their smartphones.

Some technologies are introduced, accepted, and discarded faster than others. Next Nature has developed the Pyramid of Technology to visualize how technology becomes nature in seven steps.

So, just how addicted are we to our phones? Has the phone become extremely vital and almost invisible (step 6) and is it actually an extension of our arm? Learn more.

The study found that one-third of Dutch adults surveyed were ‘addicted’, and for young people, that number was even higher at six in ten. The phone has become an extension of ourselves, with two-thirds of Dutch people keeping their phone within reach at night and checking it immediately upon waking up. Some people are so attached to their phone that they even bring it to bed with them, isn't this a sign that the phone has become our next nature? Although phones are not glued to or inside our bodies, they did become an integral part of our lives, and for some (Dutch) people, they're even more important than sex, vacations, or their own fingers!"