59 percent of Canadians experience ‘disconnection anxiety’
How do you feel when you’re separated from your BlackBerry? According to a new report by Solutions Research Group, 59 percent of Canadians exhibit elevated levels of anxiety when disconnected from the Internet or cell phones.
How do you feel when you’re separated from your BlackBerry? According to a new report by Solutions Research Group, 59 percent of Canadians exhibit elevated levels of anxiety when disconnected from the Internet or cell phones.
Specifically, this report found that 26 percent of the population exhibit "significantly elevated" levels of anxiety when disconnected. In terms of age, 44 percent of this group are 12 to 24, 31 percent are 25 to 34 and 26 percent are 35 to 64.
A secondary group of 33 percent exhibit "above-average" levels of anxiety occasionally, depending on the situation.
See here:
Sure, this might seem pathetic, but at least we’re lower than Americans, where 68 percent experience disconnection anxiety when away from the Internet and cell phones. This data was also collected and analyzed by the Solutions Research Group, in a study that used research collected on nearly 5,000 people over two years.
You can download a PDF of the Canadian report by clicking here.
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Personally,I`m 1 of the 61% of canadieans who displays anxiety every time I do connect to the internet.This is largly because all you get is spam and bull$–T,because NO1 says what they REALLY THINK ANYMORE ANYWHERE. You GO CANADA, stay wired,& stay weird too. It Identifies us as "the HIGH TECH. wizzards that we ALL KNOW we are!AND REALLY I am over 50yrs of age.I 4 1, think Mr. Rogers should keep his job at the day care centre. We Canadians,over 50, probably don`t need to know where our kids are. By the time u r my age, your kids r NOT kids anymore. Xcept in their heads because of the bull$–t they have read on the internet, or read in a text on their cell phone(s). Don`t worry though,you`ll know that they will be well educated. Afterall they can blog here,and correct all the spelling mistakes an old wiered Bastar- like me makes when I type!!hale cell phone hale the internet!!!!
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I get anxiety when my pc has to go into the shop to get repaired.Even though i'm a book lover i just pick up a book and read.I have a bf and we stay in touch with online messaging.Right now we are apart because he is working in Germany and Switzerland right now.and this is all we got at the moment.But usually i stay connected with my cell on the web.But if my cell gives out? i would be out there getting another one to stay connected!
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XD Interesting! True for me though, I have an account on livejournal and tend to be a little obsessive when checking comm updates. as well as Video updates on utube of Dong Bang Shinki, who are currently on their 3rd live Japanese tour! So I absolutely cannot miss the fancams! or news updates! When I was away without any means of getting on the internet, as pathetic as is seems, I was a little out of it wondering what I was missing.
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Well Kevin, I absolutely agree with you about both cell phones & the internet..ghastly horrid abominations, but, you have managed to pick up their way of comminicating. I had a helluva time interpreting the symbols & acronyms. The whole word is far easier to understand. Just a thought…….
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It is undeniable that the cellular phone and internet has connected the world as never before, and it is an amazing accomplishment. However, there needs to be some disconnect from these technologies in our daily lives. It does not promote a healthy family lifestyle to be constantly "plugged in" to your workplace and associates. I understand that there are certain businesses that require more than 8 hours per day. If you cannot turn your phone or blackberry off for a few hours every night then there are other areas of your life (eg. your family) that are being seriously neglected. The business world hummed along just fine before these creations when everyone finished work at 5pm, we can definitely live without them for a few hours.
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I find my Cell and the Internet has permitted me freedoms that were not possible before. I can go fishing with the family, just so long as I have my cell. I go on vacation, and the first thing I find is an Internet cafe. It's fine to say, its not good to work while on vacation. But, if I can not get any work done while I am on vacation, I can not afford the time to go on vacation. What's the choice?
We must not forget, when you sit in your LazyBoy after dinner and turn your cell phone off. On the other side of the globe, it is tomorrow and they are working diligently. We should keep that it mind, no matter what, it will always be "today" here and "tomorrow" over there.
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I wake and check my e-mails, before I leave the house I check them again, as soon as I get home, before dinner and before bed. I am soooo addicted to the computer its scary.
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I use the internet for new cooking ideas or decorating the house or the odd chatting. But I'm a bussy beaver a girl on the go. I usually leave my cell at home when I'm home from work or school and out with my daughter. being diconected isnt a big deal I'll just go for a little outing, dust the house, a good run , play barbies with my kido or whatever elles I do.
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As someone who works in a computer service store, I think their findings are a bit off. I would put the number of axious to be disconnected closer to 80% based on what we see, hear and experience everday with our customers, and the ones who walk in off the street who forgot their laptop batteries at work and need a spare for the weekends at home or cottage. And let's not forget those who want us to fix their cellphones and blackberries and get miffed when we can't because we service computers not phones. We have a typical 1-2 day turnaround service timeframe, and you would think I was asking for their first born when I tell them they can't just dump their pc here, wait five mintues and have all kinds of work done while they wait. The typical response we get is, "But I can't go without my computer!!! I work from home/I telecommute/I travel all day long!!!"
People, calm down. The world isn't going to end because your pc is in the shop for a day or so, and the clients will understand if you have to chat with them in email from the public library. Get over it, relax, and enjoy the unexpected day off. Sheesh!
BTW, I talk from experience. I worked as a freelancer for a long time in various fields, and one day I got a great job where I didn't need to be plugged in, and Fido cut my SIM card off from lack of use. That was almost four years ago. I still have the phone, but it's never been reactivated. And you know what? My blood pressure dropped dramatically. My doctor was shocked. I wasn't.
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This is true. I'm addicted to my laptop and the internet that it's scary. They need to establish rehabs for people like me :S
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I will be honest here and say that people need to start differentiating between missing something and an addiction.
If all you had was a rock to hit a nail with… you'd miss your hammer. You aren't addicted to your hammer, but rather, quite aware at how much faster it would do the job, and have developed a preference.
The net is the same. You aren't cut off from what it has to offer when you don't have it. All of that good stuff can be garnered from elsewhere. The only difference is the tools used to get it are much much slower.
The only other place anxiety can come from online is if you have obligations that can't be met without having internet.
Unfinished business anywhere can cause stress… it isn't isolated to the internet or blackberry's. Most people get upset when they lose their phone too… but there isn't any 'telephoners anonymous'.
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It feels so good not owning a cell phone or computer, compared to all of you suckers stuck in the rat race of life, I have it easy. It's true you are all pathetic if you experience anxiety over being temporarily disconnected. Now I do not mean to judge I applaud and implore people who use the tech of today to advance themselves their lives or livelihoods, however most people don’t they use today’s tech to take a picture then look at it for 5 minutes until they delete it and are on to the next one. Or answer their phone in the theatre distracting everyone around them both audibly and visually. Again these people are not bad people, just stupid ones. So in conclusion grow up people I have never owned a cell phone and I got rid of my computer 8 months ago and I never have a problem getting a hold of anybody and nobody has ever had a problem getting in touch with me.
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"JAMES D",well well well,do you ever sound Mixed-up!!hahaha!!!Well since you got rid of your computer(8 months ago)why are "adding" you're "I don't own a cell phone or comp b.s"? Actually owning both are useful you moron! let me say how self-indulgent you are,sounds to me you got booted out a few chat-rooms!!based on your PATHETIC dumb comment!!!
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The internet is a wondrous thing which I adore, and I do feel greatly saddened without it. Time in a home without electronics is not an "unexpected vacation", as Stacey said (though I don't necessarily disagree with all she did say and she put it pretty well.) For me it's a tedium compared with sitting in school at the end of a class with a "break" and not having a book or someone to talk to. A five hour "break"? I'm going to sleep, damn it. I can't live through that. -_- It's not necessarily days I need it-I just love it. For me, it is distressing in a more "addicted" sense, like with substances. Plus, I've got an online bf, so…
(and his laptop's broken for days now, so god knows how HE feels about it.)
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I have read all ur comments on being addicted to internet or celfone. I might say i'm addicted too but i don't panic if ever my pc didn't work for a few days or weeks i tried to get busy on something else. I own a celfone but i didn't hardly used it, i was stuck on 3 yrs plan which is a stupid idea that i never realise at the first place. But i guess i can't get away with this anymore i have to keep it until the years plan ends. But for the people who enjoy chatting nor watching utubes and something else. There's a lot of things to do on computer especially if your on the internet. Technology now can change lives on some people, especially on young people. I will be more high end technologies will be coming, we can't stop it, it keeps coming.
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The critical flaw is that they failed to distinguish between cell phones and internet. Consequently, the % they report, that is, % of people with “disconnection anxiety”, concerns both cell phones and internet, and there is no way of knowing what is specific to the net. Yet their report mostly talks about internet, which is misleading. That they blurred the cell phone data and the internet data together was intentionally camouflaged (implicitly mentioned once, still unclear and consequently is highly suspicious…they probably had very little internet specific “disconnection anxiety” and had to pool their data together with cell phones to get a large % effect to make the headlines.
The second problem is that they do not compare their measure of disconnection anxiety, which concerns cell phones and internet, with other types of disconnection anxiety, say home phones, TV, newspapers, etc. which would also cause anxiety in a lot of people, especially the elderly who, in their study, did not experience much disconnection anxiety (did they check to make sure they had cell phones at all?).Without a comparison, their data is difficult to make sense of.
This is a study made to get free publicity. If something is not published in a peer-reviewed journal, it usually ends up being a study like this one, which not only fails to report basic elements on which the validity of a study can be evaluated (e.g., what questions they asked, what is their measure of disconnection anxiety) but report findings (e.g., generation specific types of anxiety)without any data what so ever, and even shows evidence that the data was presented in a misleading manner. Cheers!
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