Top 10 Signs of Cell Phone Addiction

Emotionally attached to your cell phone and skipping meals to pay for it? Your cell phone addiction is out of control and it's time for an intervention.

Forget fast food, video games and reality TV. The worst plague sweeping the world these days is smartphone addiction. You’ve seen the worst affected skittering in alleyways, awake in bed at night, and in movie theaters, with the glow of backlit LCDs lighting up their maniacal faces. They’re addicts. Any you may be one of them.

Think you it may be more than a slight affinity for texting? Here are the top ten signs you’re addicted to your smartphone.

(And we’re all a little guilty.)

10. You’ve spent more on accessories than on your phone.

It started out with something harmless like a car charger, but then you stepped up to the car FM transmitter, armband, a different case for each day of the week, spare batteries, screen protectors, a stereo Bluetooth adapter, wireless speakerphone, and even a dock powered by tube amps. You realize that it’s just a phone, not a kid, right? And that none of it will work when you inevitably upgrade to the next version six months from now?

9. You have 30 different apps installed. And use them all.

We’ve all gone through app-installing binges where we’ve installed some questionable stuff on our cell phones. Two weeks later, we either figure out it’s garbage and delete it, or leave it to stagnate. But those of you still checking on your digital iPhorest trees, using car locater to find your Camry down the block every morning, and thumbing through digital copies of the U.S. Constitution during heated political debates are the real nuts.

8. You have alarms telling you when to do everything in your life.

Business meetings, doctor’s appointments, and group meetups. All valid events to put in your phone. Have an alarm for putting out the trash on Wednesday night? You’re in way too deep, buddy. When you need your phone to prod you through every step of the day, it might as well be your respirator or dialysis machine.

7. You read about your phone on your phone.

Not content to dream about your phone, fondle it in your pocket all day long, and relish every chance to use it, you actually invest time in finding out more about it, while using it. You read through the latest TUAW posts on your iPhone, or threads on the Crackberry forums from your Bold. Your phone is no longer a means to an end, it is the end.

6. You’ve cut back on necessities to afford your $100 a month cell phone bill.

OK, lunch is pretty important. But $5 a day adds up to like $150 a month, and that can totally pay your phone bill if you just switch to Jell-O and ramen noodles for a while. Or maybe you could just start hopping the turnstile instead of paying for a subway pass. Or move to a cheaper apartment. Or carry a balance on that credit card…

Does this logic sound familiar?