Would you chop off a finger for your smartphone? 10% of millennials would

Seeing a millennial glued to the small screen is hardly unusual, but new research from Tappable suggests some would go to some pretty extreme lengths to keep hold of the device. Would you chop off your finger for cat videos?

The lives of younger generations are becoming increasingly defined by the small, powerful device, perhaps because the connected world is a natural part of life since they were born, or because more aspects of society are becoming digitised. Irrelevant to the reason, the outcome is the same; the smartphone is dictating our lives.

“We talk a lot about how millennials are tech dependent,” said Director of Research at The Center for Generational Kinetics, Elli Denison. “Losing a finger or one of the senses is an extreme way to frame it, but the bottom line is younger generations are completely immersed in technology, particularly mobile devices, and feel extreme dependency. There is no sign of this slowing down as younger generations are immersed in technology from birth.”

According to the research, 23% of the respondents would be happy to sacrifice one of their senses, as you can see below some do not think very highly of their sense of smell. While this might be viewed as drastic, some would go even further…

38% of millennials would give up drinking, 16% would stop travelling and 15% would give up sex. 10% of the respondents would actually consider chopping of a finger to keep their device.

What would you give up to make sure you get your daily dose of Telecoms.com?