Do you ever feel your phone vibrating in your pocket or purse, only to retrieve it and be met by eerie, black-screened lifelessness?
I’m minding my own business, with my Smartphone in my back pocket. Suddenly, my left buttock started shaking as the phone vibrates and does the bzzt, bzzt, bzzt-ing dance of its people on my backside. I check the phone, and there’s nothing. No call. No text. No email. No one has moved in Words With Friends or liked my pictures on Instagram. Nothing that would have made the phone vibrate, but I swear I felt it.
If, like most people, you occasionally experience these ‘Phantom Vibrations,’ it turns out it’s because you’re a little bit nuts. Or, scientifically speaking, you’re having ‘Sensory Hallucinations.’
In one study into the phenomenon, variously dubbed ‘phantom ringing,’ ‘phantom vibration syndrome’ and vibranxiety – phantom phone vibrations were experienced by 68% of the people surveyed, with 87% of those feeling them weekly, and 13% daily.
Almost 80 percent of people who own a cell phone have experienced this strange sensation, which is also called ‘Ringxiety.’ In fact, an even earlier version of this phenomenon existed with pagers before cell phones were widespread.
What Are Phantom Vibrations?
Phantom vibration syndrome or phantom ringing is the perception that one’s mobile phone is vibrating or ringing when it is not ringing. Other terms for this concept include ringxiety, fauxcellarm. According to Dr. Michael Rothberg, a researcher at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the term is not a syndrome but is better characterized as a tactile hallucination since the brain perceives a sensation that is not present and phantom.
Michael prefers to call phantom vibrations a ‘Tactile Hallucination’ instead of a syndrome. The basic theory on why we feel these phantom vibrations is that we’re expecting a call or text, so we’re waiting for the vibration to occur. Then the cerebral cortex feels a stimulus such as a muscle contraction or clothing moving over skin and misinterprets that as the phone vibrating.
Phantom ringing may be experienced while taking a shower, watching television, or using a noisy device. Humans are particularly sensitive to auditory tones between 1,000 and 6,000 hertz, and basic mobile phone ringers often fall within this range. Phantom vibrations develop after carrying a cell phone set to use vibrating alerts.
Researcher Michelle Drouin found that almost 9 of 10 undergraduates at her college experienced phantom vibrations. The cause of phantom vibrations is not known. Preliminary research suggests it is related to over-involvement with one’s cell phone. Vibrations typically begin occurring after carrying a phone for between one month and one year.
It has been suggested that, when anticipating a phone call, the cerebral cortex may misinterpret other sensory input (such as muscle contractions, pressure from clothing, or music) as a phone vibration or ringtone. However, there are ways to reduce it.
Carrying your phone in a different position could help reduce phantom vibrations. For instance, if you have a high number of phantom vibrations with your phone in your pants pocket, moving it to a purse or shirt pocket could help. The thigh is especially prone to phantom vibrations because of the way phones rub against muscles when you bend your legs.
It isn’t always easy to tell if a phone is vibrating, and the reward for a hit is much nicer than the punishment for a false alarm. It’s no big deal if we check our phone and nothing’s going on, but we certainly don’t want to miss an alert, so our perceptive senses are on high alert for anything that might possibly indicate a vibration.
This strange phenomenon seems likely to continue gaining attention as more people become consumed in their phones. The existence of phantom vibrations shows how much this dependence on cell phones can affect the rest of our lives. Although phantom vibrations are harmless by themselves, they indicate that we may be obsessing too much over staying plugged in.