Give up sex or your mobile phone? Third of Americans forgo sex

WASHINGTON — Almost a third of Americans would rather give up sex for a year than part with their mobile phone for that long, according to a survey by The Boston Consulting Group.

In other signs of Americans’ love affair with their mobile devices, more than 55 per cent said they would forgo dining out for 12 months rather than give up their phone, while 45 per cent said they would put off going on vacation. More than three in 10 would stop seeing their friends in person, while 46 per cent would be willing to give up a day off per week.

The survey of 1,003 Americans, released today (Jan 16) in Washington, was conducted from September through November of last year and is part of a broader Boston Consulting study of mobile technology that was commissioned and partly paid for by semiconductor maker Qualcomm.

As part of the study, the group also surveyed consumers in Germany, Brazil, South Korea, China and India, contacting about 7,500 people in all, including those in the US.

Germans are about as willing as Americans to give up sex for their phones, while only a quarter of Brazilians said they would make such a choice. More than three in five South Koreans reported they’d give up sex for their mobile phones.

Consumers in China and India weren’t asked about the sex versus phone trade-off. About two-thirds of Indians and more than 55 per cent of Chinese said they’d prefer to give up a day off per week for a year than lose their mobile phone for that period. BLOOMBERG