A new poll taken by Insights West in British Columbia, Canada, found some interesting stats on Smartphone addiction in BC:

• 18% consider themselves “addicted” to their smartphone (3% an “unhealthy addiction” and 15% “a strong addiction, but manageable”), and another 43% consider it very important to their lives.
•  Among 18-34 year olds, the addiction rate rises to 27% (compared to 17% of those 35-54 and just 3% of those 55).
•  In an average week, these self-described addicts spend 2.5 hours a day actively using their smartphone (compared to 1.6 hours for those not addicted) and half (51%) check their smartphone at least once every half an hour (compared to just 24% of those not addicted).
•  If they left home for the day without their smartphone, nearly all smartphone owners (76%) would return home to retrieve it – 31% would travel 10 or more minutes to do so.
•  Smartphone users were asked to choose hypothetically between giving up their smartphone for three days, or from a series of other small sacrifices instead. Only 30% chose to “lose” their smartphone. A majority (56%) would prefer to give up Facebook for three days, and 17% would prefer to get stood up on a date.
  • Only 18% of younger (18-34 years of age) smartphone users would give up their device (compared to 26% of 35-54 year old smartphone owners and 57% of 55 years +). 70% would rather give up Facebook, 25% computer Internet, and 25% get stood up for a date.

See the full results of the poll here.