f has become the modern equivalent of glancing at your watch - the furtive look at a phone screen to check for new messages or have a quick look at Facebook.
Researchers have now found why we often feel such a strong urge to glance at our handset.
Using your mobile, they say, is contagious.
Contagious behaviour: People are twice as likely to pull out their phones to check their text messages or email if they're with someone who has just done the same
WHY ARE WOMEN WORSE?
Females were more likely to use their mobile than men because it was more 'integrated into the daily lives of women', the team say.
They also believe social inclusion 'may be particularly important for women, who used cell phones more frequently than males in both
this study and past research.'
A University of Michigan team say people are twice as likely to pull out their phones to check their text messages or email if they're with someone who has just done the same.
It also found that females were more likely to use their mobile than men because it was more 'integrated into the daily lives of women'.
The team watched students in dining halls and coffee shops around campus between January and April 2011, observing pairs of students sitting at tables for as long as 20 minutes and documented their cellphone use at 10-second intervals.
'What we found most interesting was just how often people were using their mobile phones,' Dr Daniel Kruger, the study’s co-author, told The Telegraph.
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'Every person we observed used his/her phone at least once while one woman was on hers about half of the time.
'Individuals may see others checking their incoming messages and be prompted to check their own.'
Overall, the students used their cellphones in an average of 24 percent of the intervals, the researchers found. But they were significantly more likely to use their phones (39.5 percent) when their companion had just done so in the previous 10-second interval than without the social cue.
Overall, the students used their cellphones in an average of 24 percent of the intervals, the researchers found.
But they were significantly more likely to use their phones (39.5 percent) when their companion had just done so in the previous 10-second interval than without the social cue, the researchers said, adding that this behavior was often repeated.
'Cell phones create an alternative outlet for one’s attention and may both promote and interfere with live social interaction,' the researchers wrote.
Kruger believes this pattern could be related to the effects of social inclusion and exclusion.
If one person in a pair engages in an external conversation through their phone, his or her companion may feel excluded.
A social sign: Mobile phones create an alternative outlet for one¿s attention and may both promote and interfere with live social interaction, the researchers wrote.
That companion then might be compelled to connect with others externally so as not to feel left out.
The researchers note that they might not observe the same results in a study of different demographics — for example, in older adults, who may not use cellphones as habitually.
Their findings were detailed in the Human Ethology Bulletin.