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

The results of TeleNav's survey
The results of TeleNav's surveyTeleNavpr

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.

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