A SURVEY carried out by Deloitte has shown that Irish people are far more attached to their smartphones than once previously thought.
The survey shone the lights on numerous facts regarding Irish people and their usage of their phone, with one statistic reporting that Irish people check their phone 57 times a day - the highest rate of phone checking in Europe.
According to Newstalk, Deloitte conducted a survey of 1,000 Irish people with a smartphone and collected the results, revealing that 90% of people between the ages of 18 and 75 own a phone.
For most European countries, the rate of people owning a phone is 88% - meaning Ireland tops the list of phone owners.
Other shocking results of the survey showed that 44% of Irish people check their phone in bed during the night, and 40% of Irish people check their phone immediately after waking up.
Deloitte's head of technology and media, Richard Howard said the importance of mobile phones to Irish people had increased dramatically: "Mobile devices are a relatively new 'addiction' to our social fabric and they form an important part of our daily activities and interactions.
"Social norms will develop over time, and it will be interesting to see if the fear of being without one's phone - nomophobia - starts to become more widely recognised.
Howard also hoped that phone retailers will consider the negative features of phone usage for designs of future phones:"We expect to see phone manufacturers continue to put more usage controls into devices to prevent dangerous usage."
