As per a report published in the Computers in Human Behaviour journal, it is claimed that 90% of mobile phone users are suffering from “phantom vibration syndrome”, in which they think that their mobile is vibrating in the pocket; however, in reality it is not true.
“Learned bodily habits” are responsible for this phenomenon, says Dr Robert Rosenberger, philosopher and assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. The report says that when a person keeps a mobile phone in his pocket, it becomes a part of his body just same as the glasses which are worn on eyes and the person forgets that they are there.
While giving an interview to BBC, Dr Robert Rosenberger said, “People then perceive other sensations such as movement of clothing of muscle spasms as vibrations from your mobile, but it’s just a hallucination. One recent study of undergraduates reports that 90% of them say that they’ve experienced these phantom vibrations.”
According to Dr Rosenberger, individuals had been “just so anxious these days, because of all of our different technologies,” including text messages as well as emails, “have us on edge.”
In his words, “We are more inclined to be jumpy and feel something in our pocket as a phantom vibration.”
