Anthropologists study: Smartphones have become where we live, not our homes

A team of anthropologists from UCL [University College London] spent more than a year recording the use of smartphones in nine countries around the globe, from Ireland and Cameroon, and found that away from being just trivial toys, they are made for people like home.

“Smartphone is no longer just a device we use, it has become the place where we live,” said Professor Daniel Miller, who led this study.

The other side of the medal is that in human relations at any moment, whether we're having lunch, whether at any meeting or in any other activity, the person we're with can disappear, go home “” on his phone. ”

This behavior, and frustration, disappointment, or even resentment that might cause, is what we call “death from the vicinity”. We are learning to live with the danger that even when we are together physically, we can be socially, emotionally, or professionally lonely. ”

If there is a specific cause for this transformation, researchers have implied that it could be the chat application like “WhAppi” that they call “The heart of the sermphony”.

For many users in this region, a single app now represents the most important thing smartphone does for them” LINE in Japan, for example, WeChat in China and Whatsap in Brazil, writes The Guardian, the Albanian translation Periscope.

These apps have become platforms where relatives gather together to care for their aging parents, proud parents send countless photographs of their babies, and immigrants connect to families; they are tools you can still be grandfathers with even if you live in another country. ”