Surely you have all experienced the phantom vibrations on some occasion.
You go down the street with him mobile in your pocket and suddenly you feel a vibration stuck to your leg. You immediately take out the device expecting to see on the screen the warning of the message you just received; but, curiously, there is absolutely nothing in it.
This very common situation has been widespread since the mobile phones They became an extension of our arm, but the causes appear to be unknown. There is who blames someone electronic problem; But it does not seem too plausible that a device capable of guiding us when we get lost, finding us the closest restaurant, predicting what the weather will be like all week and, if we hurry up, to tell us which shirt suits us best, make such basic mistakes. Therefore, the theory that argues that, in reality, everything is in our head.
When did you start talking about phantom vibrations?
The term of the phantom vibrations It was first played in 1996, after appearing in a strip of the cartoonist Dilbert. A decade later, when the use of mobile devices was much more common, it reappeared in the doctoral dissertation of the psychologist David Laramie, who conducted research on the cell phone use and behavior.
Since then many studies have been carried out with volunteers of different ages, sexes and occupations, of which most had only one thing in common: the obsession on the mobile phone. And now it seems crazy to remember how years ago we could go outside without any means to communicate in our pockets. What if we had an emergency and we weren’t on the loose for a cabin? What an aberration!
So today, devotion to smartphones It has become an obsession, reaching the point that sometimes we are more aware of them than of our daily routine.
What are the studies on phantom vibrations?
One of the first studies carried out took place in 2012. They participated in it 290 university students, of which it turned out that 89% They tend to feel this type of vibrations with an approximate frequency of once every two weeks. So is it a matter of young boys obsessed with new technologies and social networks?
To verify this, the results were compared with those of another study from 2010 in which they participated 176 workers members of the same hospital. In this case, 68% I used to experience this situation, so it was shown that it was not just a student thing. In fact, healthcare personnel tend to be very aware of this type of device; so, rather, it seemed to be associated with the anxiety Created when a person is afraid of receiving a call and not realizing it.
And who is to blame for all this? According to the results of these studies, the phantom vibrations do not seem to be more than a simple sensory hallucination that makes us believe that the phone vibrates and, in some cases, even rings. And who is to blame for hallucinating? Exactly our brain.
According to some researchers, the cause may lie in the frontal cortex;Because, when receiving so much information at once, our brain must filter all the sensory stimuli, guiding them according to a series of patterns established. So if you are waiting for a call for whatever reason, misinterpret other stimuli, such as clothes pressure on the skin or muscle contractions, making us believe that what we felt was clearly the vibration of our phone.
In what cases does our brain feel these phantom vibrations?
As I was saying, this misinterpretation is because our brain is waiting for a call. Does this occur continuously or only in some cases? According to a recent study carried out in the University of Michigan These situations occur, as a general rule, in people very insecure.
Imagine for example someone insecure in relationships or at work. Possibly you spend most of your time thinking that your partner or boss can call you at any time and that if you don’t answer, the consequences can be devastating. So his brain is continuously on guard waiting for the call.
Although according to this same study these vibrations do not usually worry too much about who feels them, in some cases they can become annoying, so it is recommended to take the phone out of your pocket or move it to decrease the anxiety it causes.
However, there is another much more important tip. In life there are too many things to worry about to do it also on the mobile phone and if they call you for something important and you do not answer, you can be sure that they will call you again. Why obsess then?
