back to article Poll: One in six interrupt bonking to answer mobile

A dodgy survey of surveys by online pawnbrokers CashGenerator.co.uk has compiled a list of bad phone habits that are stopping the world's smartphone owners sleeping, socialising and having sex. It's a sorry picture. The standout finding is that one in six of us would interrupt sex to leap out of bed and answer the phone, 83 …

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  1. Josco
    Unhappy

    Ha

    Chance would be a fine thing!

  2. Blofeld's Cat
    Trollface

    I suspect...

    They should have asked how many people were present when the aforementioned smartphone owners were having sex.

    1. Shaun 1

      I now have the image of someoneleaving their phone downstairs while they're having sex and some helpful person interrupting to tell them their phone is ringing

      1. Danny 14

        aye

        then cue heavy wahwah music as the newcomer joins in?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Where the answer is a whole number higher than zero and lower than two, I presume?

  3. Piskvor
    Thumb Down

    Selection bias, anyone?

    There is not a red flag huge enough for the selection bias in this study. To reformulate: "One in six people __who are likely to take dodgy surveys__ interrupt bonking blah blah blah"; not a very representative sample IMNSHO.

    However, I'll bet this will be hawked as an infallible scientific study in the papers tomorrow.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Indeed

      I suspect they had a disproportionate amount of Blackberry carriers in their sample. It is the phone which is traditionally handed out to the populace which is obliged to answer 24x7x365 regardless of are they bonking or not.

  4. Robert E A Harvey

    Oh dear.

    Did it not occur to them that asking a stupid question often yields a stupid answer?

  5. Anonymous John

    I'm sitting on the toilet as I post this.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      At least you aren't having sex on a toilet at the library.

    2. Thomas 4
      Unhappy

      I'm about to spend tonight on the couch as I post this,

  6. STurtle
    Unhappy

    What is wrong with using a mobile on a toilet?

    I understand all the other points, but seriously, what is wrong with using your mobile on a toilet?

    People were reading papers on the crapper for ages, reading or playing on your mobile is no different.

    Furthermore, if you know how to use the "mute" key properly, actual phoning is fine in my option. If the callee cannot tell, what is wrong with it?

    Otherwise, my mobile switches itself on/off according to a preset schedule. So no one will interrupt me in bed, sleeping or not.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Alert

      I guess that the original big fat hairy deal used to justify 3G, video calling, still has yet to take off then?

    2. SJRulez
      Alert

      Everything

      'but seriously, what is wrong with using your mobile on a toilet'

      it probably explains the previous reg story about mobiles covered in poo:

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/14/mobiles_covered_in_e_coli/

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    don't answer

    it could be the wife on the phone

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I imagine a lot of people would answer the phone during sex...

    ...but only if it was their wife calling.

  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    Paris Hilton

    It's all in how you phrase the question.

    When having sex, do you like to use the blower?

  10. CowardlyAndrew
    Paris Hilton

    They answer because it is the wife calling, and she has her own ring tone and she would be suspicous if they did not answer.

    1. Velv
      Paris Hilton

      Which is why ever sensible husband conditions the wife so she doesn't expect it to be answered every time, even if you are free. At least once a day her call should be ignored, otherwise she'll immediately jump to the conclusion you're a) in an accident, or b) in another woman.

      Jeez you people are amateurs.

  11. SJRulez
    Happy

    Its a bit difficult not to interrupt you having sex when your watching the porn on your phone alone. lol

  12. lee harvey osmond
    Paris Hilton

    This is a Paris Hilton story, isn't it?

    Go on people, check your video archives from 2001-4, THAT video, she takes a phone call, and Rick Salomon voices his disappointment. [I can't remember which handset; probably predates her ownership of a Sidekick.]

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Angel

      I seem to recall, in "Love Actually", that Nice Young Lady from a charity office about to get it off with a Nice Young Chap from the same office when her disabled brother phoned her up and she answered to sympathise with him, so NYC got dressed and went home.

      <sniffle ...>

      ("Love Actually"?!! - Guilty knowledge, I confess)

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just because you answer the phone doesn't mean you have stop what you're doing.

  14. Rikkeh
    Joke

    A worrying picture

    I'm more worried about the 5/6 who *don't* stop having sex when they answer the phone. I'll never be able to call my parents after Emmerdale again.

  15. Truffle

    Have these people not heard of 'hands free'?

    If not, they can enjoy some 'facetime' before they grab their phone and facetime.

  16. Quxy
    WTF?

    "Use your phone instead of the TV"

    WTF? Since when did watching TV stop being an anti-social activity?

    At least when you use your phone there's a good chance that you're interacting with other humans instead of mindlessly absorbing whatever sludge is being pushed at you through the boob tube.

  17. Mondo the Magnificent
    Pint

    Ringtone dependant..

    Now if the Benny Hill Tune" is the ring tone, that's enough to put any perfectly focussed and synchronised couple off...

    1. Graham Marsden

      "Benny Hill tune"

      ITYM Yakety Sax, popularised by Boots Randolph.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHmskwqCCQ

  18. James Micallef Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    HELLO????

    I'M IN PARIS!!!!

    :)

  19. AdamWill

    well, yeah

    well...yeah. in my experience, trying to continue rumpy-pumpy while hearing Greensleeves rendered tinnily yet annoyingly loud in the background is pretty much a non-starter. really ruins the mood.

  20. kain preacher

    @Mondo the Magnificent

    What about the frog ring tone ?

    What this says is 1 on 6 people like screwing with pollsters or 1 in 6 people have a crappy sex life .

  21. Paul RND*1000
    Paris Hilton

    What they didn't tell you

    Is that by "having sex" or "using the phone in the bathroom" they meant one and the same thing.

    And that an incoming call interrupts the online porn-fest.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yay, I'm zero for nine.

    But then I sometimes even choose to go for a walk and leave the phone behind! Also once I'm home for the evening, unless I'm actually expecting a call I at least turn off the ringer. Then again I value my down-time and refuse to subscribe to the idea that it's good to be "always on".

    As a general observation, this makes me some kind of outlier, a weirdo, judging by the number of people I've seen just at restaurants who are more interested in their phone than they are in their food or dining companion(s).

  23. Arctic fox
    WTF?

    "The standout finding is that one in six of us would interrupt sex..............

    ..................to leap out of bed and answer the phone".

    No, nothing else, just no.

  24. fearnothing
    Alert

    "it probably explains the previous reg story about mobiles covered in poo"

    Working in digital forensics teaches me that this is actually due to all the criminals who decide that the rear exit is a good place to hide something that would incriminate them.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Never Live With A Poet

    I did. She used to interrupt /anything/ for poetry, including sex.

  26. b166er

    TeeCee:

    Just so long as it's not the dog and bone!

    STurtle:

    I can't see myself being OK wiping my arse while talking to my mum.

    'You get up in the night to check Facebook and Twitter '

    That's nothing to do with being addicted, it's to do with being adick'ed

  27. This post has been deleted by its author

  28. DarkwingDuck
    Facepalm

    And the big deal is...?

    These results really aren't that shocking when one considers that the mobile phone has replaced the home phone for many people. I don't have a home phone. So of course I never turn off my phone - I wouldn't unplug my home phone if I had one, and no one would expect me to. Of course I keep my phone next to my bed at night - my parents had a home phone sitting on the nightstand too, in case of emergencies. Of course I would give up alcohol rather than my phone - it's the only way people can get ahold of me without driving to my house. If I did all of these things with a regular home phone, no one would accuse me of being addicted.

    Also, "Use your phone instead of the TV" - because being addicted to your phone is somehow worse than being addicted to TV? At least the phone can let you talk to other people.

  29. Steve Brooks

    It does bring up the awful image of the silent vibration alarm, "quick, call it again, call it again!!! OOooOOOooHHH"

  30. NetworkGuy
    Go

    Get a phone you can turn 'off'...

    Don't understand the need to keep a phone on at night - at least one of my phones is timed to switch 'on' at 08:00 and off at 20:30 - if clients need me after that, there's voicemail. It will ring at 07:30 as an alarm without being 'on' as far as calls and texts are concerned... my sister gets miffed if she gets e-mail at 03:00 or 04:00 from some mailing list as her damn phone ((iPhone user) bleeps...

    As for those who use Twitter or Facebook before getting out of bed, I'd put some money on it they're mostly female ( BICBW !) ... and if some interrupt sex to answer the phone, then that's good, as it suggests there will be fewer 'slaves to the phone' in the future as the current 'slaves' might not achieve conception so often!

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