Yet 93% willingly give away their smartphone PIN when asked – putting the safety of their ‘digital best friend’ at risk.
An experiment, which asked participants to rate various people and objects in their lives in order of importance, discovered that 37% of participants rate their smartphone as more, or equally, important as their close friends.
The results of the experiment, which was conducted by the universities of Würzburg and Nottingham Trent, on behalf of Kaspersky Lab, show that smartphones are set to overtake friends in importance.
Significant real-life people take a back seat in comparison to digital companions
The experiment asked participants to position images representing various people and objects in their lives, in relation to themselves on a diagram of a chessboard. While family, friends and pets were generally placed closer to the participant than their smartphone, many other significant people in the participant’s lives – including the people they work or study with every day - took a back seat in comparison to their digital companions.
One in five set his digital device equal or even more important than his partner
Nearly a third of participants (29%) said their smartphone was equally important, or more important, to them than their parents; while one in five set his digital device equal or even more important than his partner. 17% of respondents rated their smartphone in the highest importance category, although only 1% said their smartphone was more important than anything else in their life.
