Do you suffer from “ringxiety”?
by Josh Clark
Your cell phone rings. You go to answer it, but there’s no one there. Curiously, there’s no missed call, either. You realize after a moment that you mistook a bird chirping for your cell phone’s ring. What’s weird is that this isn’t the first time this has happened to you. You’re probably not insane — instead, you are suffering from what’s come to be called ringxiety.
It’s not surprising that in the increasingly wireless and connected world, humanity would begin to suffer techno-neuroses. Electronic gadgets have become a part of the everyday lives of people worldwide. Ringxiety is among the first of these new neuroses to emerge, along with Internet addiction and the “crackberry” phenomenon — a person’s compulsive urge to use and his BlackBerry wireless device. While crackberry addiction is a compulsive behavior, ringxiety may be a result of that and similar compulsions.
Some researchers think that ringxiety stems from a constant state of readiness that could develop in cell phone users. Before the advent of wireless phones, no one expected a call while driving in the car, shopping at the grocery store or dancing at a nightclub. With cell phones, though, there’s a potential for a call to come through at any moment. Because of this, it’s possible that our brains are conditioned to expect a call constantly, and when a person hears a tone that reminds him of his cell phone ringing, he will believe that’s the case. Others believe that ringxiety — or in this case, phantom ringing — simply stems from confusion due to the frequency of most stock cell phone ringtones and the location of our ears.
Those who opt to set the phone to “vibrate” rather than “ring” aren’t off the hook either. Even stranger than phantom ringing is the phantom vibration phenomenon. This is also a part of the ringxiety that David Laramie studied, although fewer ideas about its origins have been suggested. It’s similar to phantom ringing, but phantom vibration is a physical rather than an auditory hallucination. It’s also similar to another, well-documented phenomenon phantom limb syndrome. In this medically recognized condition, amputees — people who’ve had limbs removed — report feeling pain in limbs that are no longer attached to their bodies. Is it possible that people have become as attached to their cell phones as they are to their own arms and legs?
Slightly adapted from http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ringxiety.htm
March 2008
by Josh Clark
Your cell phone rings. You go to answer it, but there’s no one there. Curiously, there’s no missed call, either. You realize after a moment that you mistook a bird chirping for your cell phone’s ring. What’s weird is that this isn’t the first time this has happened to you. You’re probably not insane — instead, you are suffering from what’s come to be called ringxiety.
It’s not surprising that in the increasingly wireless and connected world, humanity would begin to suffer techno-neuroses. Electronic gadgets have become a part of the everyday lives of people worldwide. Ringxiety is among the first of these new neuroses to emerge, along with Internet addiction and the “crackberry” phenomenon — a person’s compulsive urge to use and his BlackBerry wireless device. While crackberry addiction is a compulsive behavior, ringxiety may be a result of that and similar compulsions.
Some researchers think that ringxiety stems from a constant state of readiness that could develop in cell phone users. Before the advent of wireless phones, no one expected a call while driving in the car, shopping at the grocery store or dancing at a nightclub. With cell phones, though, there’s a potential for a call to come through at any moment. Because of this, it’s possible that our brains are conditioned to expect a call constantly, and when a person hears a tone that reminds him of his cell phone ringing, he will believe that’s the case. Others believe that ringxiety — or in this case, phantom ringing — simply stems from confusion due to the frequency of most stock cell phone ringtones and the location of our ears.
Those who opt to set the phone to “vibrate” rather than “ring” aren’t off the hook either. Even stranger than phantom ringing is the phantom vibration phenomenon. This is also a part of the ringxiety that David Laramie studied, although fewer ideas about its origins have been suggested. It’s similar to phantom ringing, but phantom vibration is a physical rather than an auditory hallucination. It’s also similar to another, well-documented phenomenon phantom limb syndrome. In this medically recognized condition, amputees — people who’ve had limbs removed — report feeling pain in limbs that are no longer attached to their bodies. Is it possible that people have become as attached to their cell phones as they are to their own arms and legs?
Slightly adapted from http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ringxiety.htm
March 2008
wow, very interesting... i once heard my cellphone ringing, but it was a cellphone ringing on the tv, that had the tone similar to mine. i'm not crazy, it was just a coincidence :D
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