Cell phones are meant to connect us, but increasingly people are using their smartphones to disconnect from people. According to a recent study, 13% of mobile phone users have admitted to using their phones to avoid interacting with someone around them.

It’s happened to all of us at one point. We’re standing there when we spot a chatty individual in the vicinity. We immediately go for our phone and pretend to have a conversation. And just like that we avoid an unwanted social situation.

But mobile phones are supposed to unite us and now with smartphones they are doing the opposite. Now instead of calling a loved one we pull up the Facebook app to wish them a happy birthday. When we want to set up a gathering of friends we all text each other.

But we use our smartphones for more than that. If we want to know a fact just pull up wikipedia. What if you don’t know how to spell something, it doesn’t matter because auto correct is there for us. We are so attached to our phones that in that same survey more than half of respondents said not having their phone would become an issue.

The only thing I’m surprised with is that these numbers aren’t higher. Smartphones have become our 3rd arm, a true extension of the human body – and something that is not going away anytime soon.