In some cases, the best thing to do is hope that people don’t mean what they say to pollsters. Case in point: the results from a survey by impact protection vendor D30, which asked people what they would do to retrieve their phone and what they would do if something bad happened to the device.
Suffice it to say that some people have a problematic attachment to their phones.
Five interesting signs of the apocalypse — as if we needed any more — are that 59% of respondents would dive into a pool fully clothed at a wedding to save their phone, 56% would climb into a Dumpster, 54% would retrieve their phone from a festival toilet, 51% would miss an international flight, and 20% would risk climbing onto subway or train tracks.
What the survey found people would do to save their phones dovetails with how they would feel if there was bad news concerning their device:
- 25% say breaking or losing their phone would be more upsetting than crashing their car or losing their child in a supermarket
- Nearly a third of survey respondents have cried when their phone broke
- 38% would rather lose their wallet than their phone
- 74% say a broken phone would leave them anxious and frustrated
The press release offered no information on the methodology of the phone survey.
“Your phone isn’t just technology, it’s your connection to friends, family, work, entertainment, memories, and your whole life,” D30 CEO Stuart Sawyer in the press release. “Our research shows people will go to astonishing lengths to rescue their devices.”
Despite the strong feelings expressed in the survey, only a moderate portion — 62% — have a phone case and screen protector. Twelve percent use no protection at all.
doxoINSIGHTS’ U.S. Mobile Phone Market Size and Household Spend Report for 2025,” released last month, found that 88% of U.S. households spent a median of $96 per month, which computes to $1,152 annually. The report found that annual spending on mobile services is $166 billion, which is about 4% of the $4.55 trillion spent on bills annually.
