Almost half of the population is dependent on smartphones
Keystone-SDA
Almost half of the population in Switzerland shows clear to pronounced signs of smartphone addiction, according to a survey by the comparison service Comparis.
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Frequent checks so as not to miss any messages, feelings of stress when the phone is not at hand or the battery runs out, or even feelings of isolation when the smartphone is missing are particularly common among young people and in French-speaking Switzerland. Gender, education level or income have no significant influence on smartphone addiction.
Smartphone addiction or nomophobia (no-mobile-phone-phobia) refers to pathological symptoms and feelings of anxiety or changes in behaviour when the smartphone is not available.
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According to the Comparis survey, a good 40% of respondents showed signs of clear to pronounced nomophobia. They scored at least 30 points on a scale of 0 to 50. People between the ages of 16 and 35 are particularly affected by smartphone overuse. Only 23% of survey participants have no trouble at all giving up their phones.
Urban-rural divide
There is also an urban-rural divide. Among the population in rural areas, 28% can easily do without their mobile phone (but only 19% of survey participants from cities). In contrast, 43% of city dwellers are significantly to severely affected by nomophobia, but only 34% of the rural population are.
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There are also differences between language regions. Smartphone addiction is much more widespread in French-speaking Switzerland than in German-speaking Switzerland. In French-speaking Switzerland, 47% show at least clear signs of nomophobia. In German-speaking Switzerland, the figure is only 37%.
The survey was conducted by the market research institute Innofact on behalf of comparis.ch in October 2024 among 1,050 people in all regions of Switzerland.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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