We already know there’s a name for that intense anxiety you might feel at being separated from your cellphone (where are my fellow nomophobics at?) but how many of actually admit we love our phones with true, shameless burning affection? A new study from Pew says if you adore your phone but feel a little weird about that, you’re not alone.

That phone love is part of a study called “The Best (and Worst) of Mobile Connectivity” conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (via the Los Angeles Times). It all boils down to a bit of a love-hate relationship with our feelings over phones:

“Cell owners have become extremely attached and attuned to their phones, but many express ambivalence about that attachment,” Aaron Smith, lead author of the report, said in a statement accompanying it. “They love — and love to hate — the convenience and connectivity their phones afford.”

We’re attentive to our loved ones, with 67% of us checking on our phones even when it’s not binging, beeping, buzzing or otherwise talking to us. They make good bedfellows too, or close to it — 44% of respondents had slept with their phone next to the bed just in case something should need to be checked. Or you know, just to feel… close.

True partnerships may be in the making, as 29% say their cellphone is “something they can’t imagine living without.”

All of this love lavished on our phones isn’t without a trace of shame about the whole thing. Pew says 11% of us worry that we are spending too much time paying attention to our phones. Another 12% admit to having others tell them that, in what we can only imagine happened Intervention style.

Basically we all complain about how we’re too connected and dependent on this mini computers and yet… and yet who’s there to comfort you with cat videos and texts from your friends when you’ve had an awful day? Phone is. Phone is always there.

We love our cellphones and feel only a little guilty about it [Los Angeles Times]

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