Virtual world can never replace real world

Do you find it upsetting or annoying when you are in the middle of a conversation with friends or relatives, and one of them ignores you and keeps constantly checking their phone? This is not a rare phenomenon, and you are bound to meet at least one person who does this during Spring Festival.

Commiserations, you have encountered a phubber, a smartphone addict who snubs others by checking their mobile phones.

Perhaps you are a phubber yourself?

In a survey conducted by the Capital Normal University's counseling center, 77 percent of respondents admitted that they had their mobile phones on for 12 or more hours a day with 33.55 percent having it on 24/7. Moreover, 65 percent "felt somehow anxious without their mobile phones by their side" and nine of ten of the interviewees said they could not do without their phones. For phubbers, their smartphone is an umbilical cord connecting them to their "real" lives, which are conducted in cyberspace.

But staying up late to refresh micro blog accounts, send messages via WeChat, play games, browse the latest news or watch videos via mobile applications is not only exhausting, its likely to be bad for the eyes, if nothing else. According to research findings published in an ophthalmological journal, when reading text messages or using smartphones to surf the Internet, people tend to hold the phone closer to their eyes than they would read a book or newspaper, which means there is a greater likelihood of eye strain. Using smartphones for long periods of time can also lead to insomnia, thumb tendinitis and neck and back problems due to the sustained pressure on the spinal joints.

And phubbing can be dangerous in other ways. Take the situation in the US for example. Statistics from the Ohio State University showed that in 2007 some 600 pedestrians were injured in traffic accidents because they had their eyes on their phones instead of the roads, and the number had risen to 1,500 in 2010. Such accidents, where people are too busy concentrating on their phones instead of taking care of their surroundings happen worldwide, and are on the increase.

But that's not all, more importantly being a phubber harms relationships and endangers social life.