Has our smartphone dependence become an addiction?

I know that I speak for many when I say that “I feel naked and completely lost when I forget my smartphone at home”.
 
We all worry about missing important texts, emails or losing out on the latest feeds and not capturing internet-worthy moments to share with our circle of friends. I guess that’s common for most digital omnivore like me but how does everyone else feel about their devices?

According to the 2012 Mobile MindSet Study, 73% of people panic when they realize that they misplaced their phone. That’s a huge chunk of people. At 21%, a smaller, although still sizable group of people said they even felt desperate or sick, which are extreme emotional reactions for losing an inanimate object, their smartphone.

These are valid concerns about losing our smartphone because we can’t get things done. The question I ask : Why is my digital life stuck in a smartphone? If my digital information (everything on my smartphone) is accessible from other devices (laptop, tablet, another smartphone), wouldn’t that enable me to be free from that one particular gadget?

If I could access my smartphone online, I wouldn’t miss any important calls or my text message history with the details on where to meet up with a friend. That’s where the pplconnect Virtual Smartphone app makes so much sense. The solution allows you to access and use anything that your smartphone currently does, on almost any internet enabled device.

Now, there’s more to it than being a glorified back-up system because I know that’s what you’re thinking right now. With a Virtual Smartphone, you’re not limited to using a screen size of 5” or less. We’ve all had those times when we wished would could have more real estate on our smartphone. I know I do when I get a flurry of text messages and I’m stuck on a small screen trying to reply to people. I also don’t bother to copy and paste links from my smartphone browser into a message, I wait until I get back to my computer. Smartphones are great but multitasking, file management, typing and screen size generally don’t have amazing user experiences.

At the right time, if you could use your laptop or desktop to do exactly what you do on your smartphone, it would be the best of both worlds.