Survey: One-third would rather give up sex than phone

TeleNavpr

The results of TeleNav's survey

Another day, another survey that shows just how attached people are to their technology. In this case: 33 percent of respondents, overwhelmingly women, said they'd be willing to sacrifice sex for a week rather than give up their mobile phones.

At the top of the sacrifices on the national survey commissioned by TeleNav (makers of GPS Navigator): alcohol, with 70 percent of the 514 mobile phone users they surveyed (almost equally split between men and women) saying they'd stay away from the hooch for a week rather than be parted with their phones. At the low end of the sacrificial heap: Computers, which only 20 percent said they'd give up for 7 days vs. their phones.

TeleNav's blog reveals smartphone users seem to be more addicted to their devices than feature phone users, with iPhone owners showing particular separation anxiety: "iPhone users were more likely than their Android or BlackBerry counterparts to spend a week without their significant other, exercise or shoes — rather than go a week without their phone."

Upping the ewwww factor: "While 22 percent of all respondents said they would rather give up their toothbrush than their phone for a week, this number jumped to a whopping 40 percent among iPhone users. Halitosis and other priority quirks aside, 83 percent of iPhone users thought other iPhone users would make the best romantic partners."

Feature phone users seem to have some semblance of independence from their devices, which makes sense given the inconvenience of connecting to social networks.

Phones being as important — or even more than — sex may explain why nearly half of all respondents said they sleep with their phone next to them, with smartphone users outnumbering feature phone users 66 to 38 percent. About one in five (22 percent) of smartphone users surveyed said they could go a week without seeing their special someone before forfeiting their digital appendage (compared to 14 percent of feature phone users).

While we're talking about relationships: Almost one in five surveyed smartphone users (18 percent) have ended one via "voice mail, text message, email, Facebook update or Twitter post." Feature phone users surveyed show some admirable restraint in this area: only 7 percent admitted to the same. 

Some other results we found interesting:

iPhone owners also tend to spendy, at least according to survey participants. The survey compared iPhone users with those connected to other operating systems and found these iPhone users were twice as likely as Android users "to have spent more than $40 on apps for their current phone."And if you're annoyed at people who check their phones during meals, that doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon — especially if they own a smartphone, since 26 percent admitted to using their phone frequently at the dinner table, compared with 6 percent of feature phone users. Drilling that down a bit: more than a third of iPhone users surveyed said they frequently use their phone at the dinner table (compared to 21 percent of Android users and 15 percent of BlackBerry users).Only one-fifth of BlackBerry users surveyed used their phones to watch videos, while almost half (45 percent) of iPhone and Android users did the same.

More stories:

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

View the original article here

Read More

One in 5 toddlers have used smartphones: survey

BlogHer / Parenting

Twenty percent of 2-year-olds are using smartphones even before they're likely to be potty-trained. (Well, admit it, parents: You know which is more difficult to teach.)

That's among Gen X moms — those born between 1965 and 1980. For Gen Y mothers — those born after 1980 — the percentage is even higher: 33 percent of their children have used a smartphone by age 2.

The findings are from a newly released survey by BlogHer.com and the Parenting Group, the publisher of Parenting, Babytalk and Parenting.com.

"The generational breakdown is striking," noted Ad Age, which published the findings. "Across the board, younger moms are passing technology along to their kids at an early age. This might not seem too surprising, given the Gen-Y embrace of technology. But when you consider that many of the youngest Gen-X moms are still having their first kids, whereas many millennials are putting off having kids, the adoption rates of technology start to blur."

"Millennials" is the term given to Gen Y, as the first generation of "digital natives" who are "always connected," according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

That need to always be connected is reflected in those moms: "Smartphones and Internet access are her digital Swiss Army knife, and usage is addictive. Moms would much rather do without traditional media like TV," BlogHer and Parenting said of the survey, which was based on interviews with 1,038 moms, both Gen Y and X. Ninety percent of the women have children under age 10.

The survey also found that by age 4, 32 percent of kids used a smartphone, and 34 percent a cellphone of some kind; 36 percent, a video game system; 34 percent, a handheld gaming device; and 25 percent, an iPod.

Now, it's not known whether those toddlers are really using the smartphones to make calls or send emails — vs. playing games and watching videos on them. But odds are, they're using them for entertainment. Though we wouldn't be surprised if tot texting was the next big thing. "Mmy brg Grbrs, dprs, pls!"

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

View the original article here

Read More

Men use 'sniff test' to tell clothes' cleanliness, survey shows

TODAY's Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb chat about a survey that says nearly half of men have no problem wearing clothes, including underwear many times before washing them and that they rely on the "sniff test."

More evidence that single guys are gross: A new survey shows that one in eight men wears his underwear two or three times between washes. Even grosser: More than half of the men surveyed admitted they rely on the "sniff test" to determine whether they wear their clothes over again, without washing.

Have you ever bought new clothes in order to avoid doing laundry?

Clorox paid for the phone survey of 1,200 people, and presumably wants us to be so disgusted we douse our respective men in bleach.

Watch Kathie Lee and Hoda discuss the survey results (starting at about 5:22 in the above clip).

To be fair to the guys, single women may be cleaner than their male counterparts, but the survey suggests women may be just as lazy: Single women were more than twice as likely as married women to buy new clothes -- instead of bothering to do the laundry. In fact, more than a third of unmarried women own more than 20 pairs of underwear -- presumably another way to avoid the chore.

We're sure your personal hygiene habits are nowhere near as gross as those of these survey respondents, but you should vote in our (anonymous!) reader poll, anyway.

Follow msnbc.com health writer Melissa Dahl on Twitter: @melissadahl.

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

View the original article here

Read More