Phubbing is the act of looking down at your phone while someone is actively talking to you.  Significant others and best friends are the most common culprits in the phubbing game, most likely because we spend so much time around these people. After that, it’s moms. Our own moms are phubbing us. And they’re doing it at three times the rate that dads do it.

But the most pernicious phubbing is a practice so vile I can’t believe I have to even say it: gay men checking Grindr while hooking up with someone.

91% are guilty of looking at their phones while socializing with someone physically in front of them. The reason? Boredom. The study also revealed 28% accuse their significant other of being the biggest “phubber” in their life, and almost half say their S/O phubs them daily.

• 1 in 3 people have been distracted by phone notifications during sex
• 40% of people say the first thing they do after sex is check their phones

One in three Americans (31%) say they have been distracted during sex because of phone notifications. And when we asked people the first thing they do right after having sex, 40 percent say they check their phone.

When historians look back, they’ll conclude boredom as we once knew it expired around 2010. With the emergence of smartphones, thousands of apps and games, and constant connectivity, we’ve found a way to fill every last gap in our daily and nightly schedules.

Why so much phone use? Obviously it’s stimulating, but that’s not the only reason people retreat to their screens. Eighty-six percent of Americans we surveyed say they regularly use their phone to avoid interacting with other people and 61 percent admit they use their phone to avoid talking to specific family members around the holidays. Additionally, 91 percent acknowledge that even when they put themselves in a situation to socialize with other people face-to-face, they sometimes look at their phones out of boredom.

Our data confirms what has long been suspected—toilets and phones are a perfect pair! A whopping 90 percent of people regularly use their phones on the toilet and 75 percent of people say they frequently spend more time on the toilet than they initially intended because they get distracted on their phone. More than half (53%) of those we surveyed say they have felt their legs and/or buttocks go numb from using their phone on the toilet for so long. About as well as anything, that sums up our relationship with our phones.

Methodology

Between October 8-9, 2021, we surveyed 1,098 Americans to understand their smartphone-related habits. Our respondents were 51 percent female and 49 percent male, between the ages of 18 to 68, with an average age of 30 years old.

Data compiled by Solitaire.