The weird things we do with mobile phones

Nearly half of Australian mobile users talk on their phones while using the toilet, while 58% of married females would check their partner’s SMS/caller list, according to a new survey.

The Synovate “How mobile are you” survey, commissioned by Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business division, polled nearly 2500 respondents from five countries including Australia, China, India, Japan and Taiwan.

The survey reveals that 48% of Australians use mobile phones while on the toilet. But Taiwan and China are more likely to talk in the lavatory, at 68% and 66% respectively.

The survey also reveals 80% of Australians use a mobile when eating with other people, 62% talk while driving, and 48% while trying to sleep. But younger Australians aged 18 to 30 are more likely to use the phone in a library or cinema, while 53% of Australians think phones should be allowed during flights.

Other survey findings include the fact that 43% of users in Sydney would check a partner’s caller list, compared to 52% in Melbourne. A quarter of Australians would use GPS to track the whereabouts of their spouse, while 13% of Australians would use their phones during “extremely intimate moments”.

“Other than showing some of the more unconventional uses of phones, these results show how entrenched in all aspects of our lives mobile phones have become,” Microsoft Australia’s director of mobile communications business Grace Kerrison says.