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If you have never experienced this everyday situation, throw your first smartphone: Your mobile device vibrates, you reach into your pocket and look at the display, but … there is no message at all. You could swear: the smartphone has just vibrated!
So what happens when we occasionally pull out our smartphones for no reason? And how does that relate to the mobile phone boom of the noughties? We go in search of clues.
What is Phantom Vibration Syndrome?
Current science speaks of phantom vibration syndrome, or in short: PVS. To Europe is also from the Phantomvibration the speech. Earlier studies also spoke of the Fashion sickness Vibranxiety
(a pun on the English words for Vibration
and state of anxiety
The experts also describe PVS as tactile hallucination
. Translated into forest and meadow Europe, this means: You imagine you can feel your handset vibrating – when nothing is vibrating.
As part of a study by Indiana University, almost 90 percent of the subjects Expect to experience one case of PVS every two weeks on average. Even beyond this study, it can be assumed that up to 90 percent of smartphone users worldwide have experienced the phantom vibration themselves – maybe you can confirm that from your own experience.
In a way, PVS is one natural consequence of our continuous digital consumption: notifications are constantly raining down on us or push messages are hammering against our smartphone screen. Is it ultimately a typical, everyday symptom of homo digitalis in the 21st century? To one profane Massenhalluzination
On the other hand, if it’s about real comfort instead of imaginary vibrations, you’ve come to the right place:
The forerunners of the PVS
As early as 2005, readers stumbled across the term Technicus in a Columbia University student newspaper for the first time Phantom Cell Phone Vibration
.
Psychologist David Laramie established the term just a year later Ringxiety
in his dissertation – which the high-circulation New York Times picked up on in one of his issues.
Phantom Cell Phone Vibration
, Ringxiety
and currently this Phantom-Vibrations-Syndrom
… are these all just empty phrases, first tracing ghost calls and now erroneously perceived vibration notifications? Or is there more to it?
That’s what science says
One of the earliest explanations was provided by Professor Alejandor Lleras of the University of Illinois. Llera’s explanation dates back to the noughties, a time when the ringing of a mobile phone was heard more often than the vibration of a smartphone was felt.
Lleras concluded that the phenomenon was the side effect of a learning process
. Because of the inflationary, ubiquitous ringtones and notification tones, the modern city time person must first learn to distinguish all possible beep tone variants from other noises.
This video provides brief information about what PVS is all about.
link to YouTube content
So is it simply a perceptual error?
Larry D. Rosen from California State University provides a more recent explanation for PVS. According to Rosen, our smartphone-conditioned body is constantly expecting some kind of technological interaction
which usually comes from the mobile phone.
However, this circumstance leads so far that we, for example, Misinterpret rubbing your trouser leg as a vibrating handset – and go straight back to your smartphone.
In other words: the smartphone is becoming like this day in and day out worn close to the body (roughly in your pocket) that in perception the border between own body and foreign body becomes blurred.
Therefore, even a consciously barely perceptible enough rash in basic muscle activity to make us imagine: Hey! My phone is ringing right now!
. Even minimal muscle twitching can therefore ensure that the cell phone vibrates.
Mathias Dietrich knows that there are enough reasons to be enthusiastic about smartphones. Classic PC games just rock – especially on the smartphone:
The Addicted Brain
Because messages or calls that we receive on our smartphone are specifically addressed to us, our brain anticipates a possible one Dopamine rush. And that also leads to an above-average number of people using their cell phones.
You know it: your cell phone vibrates, you reach for it, and the sight of a trivial message from Aunt Gertrude that she is late for today’s plum cake dinner triggers feelings of happiness. Put simply, the brain tells us: Yay! Any message for me! I am important!
So here is our ego at work that wants to be played with.
There is no reason to be ashamed of PVS. In fact, this mechanism is normal. Only: Should this perceptual error get the better of you, what can you do about it?
What can help?
Some practical optionsWe have put together a list of how you can reduce your smartphone consumption below.
- Reduce smartphone dependency: For example, by using a paper calendar or using alternative communication channels where possible.
- Track screen time: Many messenger clients offer the option to display how much time you spend with a specific app. Upper limits for the use of certain apps can also be set. Or you can display how high your screen time with the smartphone is in general.
- Turn off push notifications for specific apps: Many intelligence services are constantly reporting according to the motto
You have to read this recipe for an avocado quiche now!
. Peter Lustig already knew what to do here: Just switch off! - Use different devices: It can be helpful to use different devices for personal and work-related needs.
- Keep smartphone out of immediate reach – in the next room, in a lockable chest – be creative.
Have you ever felt the phantom vibration syndrome on your own body – or do you think the phenomenon is rather rare? If you’re thinking your smartphone is vibrating right now, feel free to call an emergency number in our comments. But non-PVS victims are also very welcome there.
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