by Emma Dibdin
What a ludicrous question, I hear you cry. It would be as though I’d lost a limb! Or at least a finger! The very idea that I wouldn’t realise my beloved digital companion had left my side is a fallacy!
Or maybe that’s just what I shouted at my own screen. Just now. On my own.
Either way, PC World reports that the good folks over at YouGov have dared to ask the question, and they’ve come up with some pretty surprsing results.
Their survey of 2,000 mobile phone owners revealed that only a third would notice within 15 minutes that their phone was missing. Men are likely to notice sooner than women – 40% of men said they would notice within 15 minutes compared to 29% of women. Writer Tony Bradley makes the very good point, though, that this could be down to storage – men tend to stow their phones in a pocket where its absence is more immediately obvious, where women are more likely to keep theirs in a bag.
Other interesting figures from the study include the unsurprising fact that younger owners are more likely to feel the absence of their phone – 18% of 18-24 years olds would notice it missing within five minutes.
Bradley also points out that the survey should be taken with a grain of salt, given that the company behind the survey, SecurEnvoy, are in the business of mobile data security. Nonetheless, food for mobile thought.
How long do you think it would take you to realise your phone was missing?
Mobile Journalists 