All told, it reads similarly to an older study conducted on Apple fanboys to determine that their obsession was tantamount to religious devotion. Branding consultant and author Martin Lindstrom gathered a group of 16 young adults and exposed them to audio-visual cues from an iPhone. What he found surprised him:
In each instance, the results showed activation in both the audio and visual cortices of the subjects’ brains. In other words, when they were exposed to the video, our subjects’ brains didn’t just see the vibrating iPhone, they “heard” it, too; and when they were exposed to the audio, they also “saw” it. This powerful cross-sensory phenomenon is known as synesthesia.
But most striking of all was the flurry of activation in the insular cortex of the brain, which is associated with feelings of love and compassion. The subjects’ brains responded to the sound of their phones as they would respond to the presence or proximity of a girlfriend, boyfriend or family member.
Which makes me think of the crazy things we do for the people we love and how breaking up is hard to do. How I might have had something of a technological infatuation with my first iPhone, but by now my iPhone 4 and I have a steady working relationship that’s perhaps less intimate. But fanboy/girl zeal being as fervent as it is with this announcement around the corner, I’m not sure I’m that surprised with Lindstrom’s findings.
And that’s the thing, isn’t it? I don’t consider myself a fanboy, but I’m undoubtedly changed by my phone. Studies like this don’t really tell me anything new about myself, nor do they really tell me about what loving your phone means to that person. I wish they did. Loving a family member and a girlfriend are two different things. And then Lindstrom very quickly resorts to advising people find love and compassion the “old-fashioned way”, which really sounds a lot like “back in my day” old man grumbling. Real, honest-to-goodness relationships are important. But isn’t love itself the bigger picture here?
[NYT]
Image: MANDY GODBEHEAR/Shutterstock
Norgan
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 10:17 AMHmm yeah well that explains the blind devotion to a bad product lol
Kind of like peopel stuck in abusive relationships, an iPhone user continues to hope for better and maybe the next one will be right for them. All they need to do is cut tHat Tie and searCh for a good phone that will treat them right.
Joel
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 10:22 AMLOL
Bad product.. Good one
Treat me right?
Three years of using two different iPhones and it’s never put me wrong.
Bad product lol
Glad this was posted on the weekend and not when the blind Apple haters are around.
Steve
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 3:14 PMThree years and it didn’t put you wrong? Well, I’m glad you’re not Norgan then.
Peter
Monday, October 3, 2011 at 1:34 AMJust wait til you try to leave it.
Astroboy440
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 10:40 AMMan do I hate apple and that smug little apple symbol-which makes me angry at myself for loving my iPhone so much. So confused!
Nikki
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 11:29 AMIf that was a real scientific study, then it was incredibly narrow and short-sighted. Where was the control group? What’s to say that it’s anything to do with Apple products at all? Isn’t it feasible that the sound of an incoming phone call or text message stimulates the feelings of love because it’s associated with a loved one contacting you? Bah, what a ridiculous use of the idea of a ‘scientific study’.
moloko
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 11:46 AMAll the people I know that have owned an iphone said it was a piece of shit and would never buy another one again. Sounds like an article paid for by Apple for the release of a new iphone,LOL good timing
poltak
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 12:12 PMThey really had to do a study to come to this conclusion???
Simon Reidy
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 12:45 PMI’m a bit of a stud and have two love affairs going on with an iPhone and an iPad. There’s just no way I can go back to my fat and noisy HP laptop wife when I have two sexy, skinny devices to choose from, (especially when I can caress them all day long and their batteries just keep going and going.. )
EckyThump
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 1:38 PMThey must be fickle buggers then, because as soon as Apple releases a newer model, they dump the old one and start masturbating on the new one! #]
Steve
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 3:10 PMI’m currently using an IP4 and I’d describe the relationship as more like… battered wife syndrome. I’m stuck in a 24 month plan, watching it get outclassed by Android superphones and becoming increasingly frustrated by Apple’s bullshit.
Really? I can’t move documents to my device without going through iTunes? And there’s no official Google Docs app either? I have to use a work-around? It’s like a jealous husband who’ll give me a black eye.
Ozoneocean
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 3:39 PMWell I used to react with murderous rage every time I heard the sound of the standard Nokia ring-tone, and even after I changed it, the new sound and accompanying vibration set my teeth so far on edge I almost split my face…
But that wasn’t because it was an especially horrible phone though, it was just that it was my work phone and I was really fed up with that job :)
BTW, I love that a gal in the pic is holding some sort of slider phone.
Eckythump
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 6:28 PMHah,.. Good pickup.. #]
G
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 6:37 PMIt’s not really a good pickup because it’s pretty obvious.
EckyThump
Monday, October 3, 2011 at 7:34 AMOh dude, I’m so sorry… I didn’t realise there was humourless tool reading the comments, that almost never happens! #}
MotorMouth
Monday, October 3, 2011 at 8:51 AMI have a very complex relationship with my phone. On many levels I appreciate how amazing it is as a piece of technology but every time it rings I wish I didn’t have it. Why doesn’t it understand that I just want to be left alone? Sure, I love being able to check the weather forecast half-a-dozen times a day and I suppose that getting emails regularly can be handy but I find myself wondering if my life is really better overall.
I think the only phone I really loved was my super-thin Samsung X-820. It was a gorgeous piece of industrial design and Samsung’s OS looked great and was super-easy to navigate. Even though I got successively more powerful and better featured phones, I kept finding excuses to put my SIM back into the X-820. I still have it, sitting in it’s original box in my garage. Sometimes I find an excuse to sneak downstairs, just to hold it for a while.