Jump directly to the Content
Jump directly to the Content

Sermon Illustrations

Home > Sermon Illustrations

Study Shows Cell Phone Separation Anxiety

Researchers from the University of Missouri wanted to know how subjects behaved when parted from their iPhones, so they recruited 208 students for a survey on "media usage." The researchers used the survey to screen for iPhone users and eventually recruited a group of 41 respondents for an experiment in cell phone separation anxiety. During the study, participants were placed in a cubicle and asked to perform word search puzzles. Researchers monitored their anxiety levels, heart rate, and blood pressure while the subjects had their iPhones with them.

Then, the real experiment began. Researchers told participants that their iPhones were causing interference with the blood pressure cuff and asked them to move their phones. The phones were placed in a nearby cubicle close by. Next, the researchers called the subjects' phones while they were working on the puzzle. Immediately afterwards, they collected the same data.

The results changed dramatically. Not only did the participants' puzzle performance decline significantly while the phones were off-limits, but their anxiety levels, blood pressure and heart rates skyrocketed. One of the researchers concluded, "iPhones are capable of becoming an extension of selves such as that when separated, we experience a lessing of 'self' and a negative physiological state."

Related Sermon Illustrations

A Profusion of Phrases Describe Information Overload

The phrase "information overload" was popularized by Alvin Toffler in 1970. "Information overload" is one of the biggest irritations in modern life. There are e-mails to answer, virtual ...

[Read More]

Statistics About the Decline of Silence in Society

The July 2011 issue of Real Simple magazine offered the following statistics and observations about the proliferation of noise and the lack of silence in our world:

  • In 1920 a Nebraska inventor designed the first automobile alarm. In 2004 New Yorkers proposed a bill to ban car alarms as a public nuisance.
[Read More]