A TOTAL of 84.9 percent of people in a recent survey said obsession with their smartphones has made them spend less time communicating with their families and 78.9 percent said they feel guilty for doing so.

The survey, published by the China Youth Daily earlier this week, polled 2,004 people, about 90 percent of whom saw the obsession as an obstruction to personal communication with family members.

This feeling appeared to be even stronger among people in their 30s — the “1980s-generation” — as 91.4 percent of them complained about the “phubbing” impact.

Another survey, conducted by China Youth Daily’s survey center via Wenjuan.com, has indicated serious addiction to mobile phones among Chinese with 84.7 percent of respondents spending an average of more than three hours on their phones each day. The survey covers 2,004 respondents aged between 19 to 59.

Around 93 percent of the respondents sensed serious addiction to mobile phones, and 2.3 percent said they use mobile phones more than 12 hours a day.

They listed social networking apps like WeChat and Weibo (77.8 percent) and browsing information (62.9 percent) as the top two functions they used on their mobile phones.

“Mobile phones have become a way of life,” said Sun Hongyan, director of the childhood research institute at China Youth and Children Research Center.

Apart from making phone calls, mobile phones permeate various aspects of people’s lives including socialization, entertainment, shopping and learning, Sun added.

(Xinhua)