By ERICA LEVY and MORGAN HAMERMAN
Several members of the Jericho High School community experience phantom phone vibrations, an unusual syndrome when one believes that his/her cell phone is vibrating, when in reality it is not.
Alternate names for this syndrome include hypovibochondria and ringxiety. In a survey by business lawyer David Canton published in The Daily Beast, 87% of participants experience phantom phone vibrations weekly, and 13% daily.
Scientists believe that this syndrome is caused mainly because of psychological reasons.
“It’s more of a mental thing,” said Jericho High School science teacher and avid smartphone user Mr. Tim Strout. “You think of it in your head subconsciously.”
Senior Julia Hyman agrees. “I always feel my phone ringing and vibrating, but it never does.” She added that she “gets really annoyed by it.”
However, this syndrome is also found in people who would not consider themselves “obsessed” with using their phones. Jericho High School social worker Mr. Todd Benjamin only uses his phone for approximately two hours a day, but he believes that this is more of a mental “phenomenon” than actual syndrome.
“Kids in our generation have an immediate connection to having to know what’s going on every three minutes,” he said. According iDisorder, a book he read that explored phantom phone vibrations, Mr. Benjamin commented that “it’s starting to change the way we think and the way we behave.”
Click here to view an audio piece on JHS Student cell phone use in class.
“[People] get a high from getting messages and seeing their phone lighting up,” said JHS nurse Mrs. Iris Reshef. She therefore agreed that this is not a “real syndrome” but contends that it does affect many people today.
As cell phone usage continues to increase, it appears that this strange phenomenon will become more prevalent.
