What we look for when we stare at smartphones?

A more interesting fact is that, 93 percent of the surveyed people in the 18-to-29 age group used smartphone at least once a day to overcome boredom. Many of them used them to connect to the Internet where social media networking sites act like magnets.

After Wang's death, her husband told the media that she used to be glued to her smartphone even while eating. Wang's story is not unusual. Thousands of people show the same symptoms. In fact, a term has been coined for smartphone addiction: "nomophobia", or the fear of being without your mobile phone - no+mo(bile)+phone.

"Nomophobiacs", psychologists say, reflect social disconnect or disorder. Due in part to the pace of life and greater demand for decision-making in the Information Age, tremendous amount of anxiety is caused. People are spending more time than ever accessing or trying to access information, for which they have to fiddle with their mobile phones, computers or other electronic gadgets.

Worse, the demands of a fast-paced life have pushed people into a spiritual and cultural void. More often than not people use their mobile phones for social networking to escape "loneliness", which takes them farther away from the real world.

Another worrying fact, according to the Pew Research Center report, is that the younger smartphone users are the angrier about using it as a tool. The more expectations we have from a tool the more disappointed we will be if it doesn't provide the expected results.

Given the rising concerns about safety, it is better that smartphone users decide what they are looking for in their gadgets before using them, and turn them off after completing a specific function, instead of fiddling with them in the hope of encountering more dopamine-spurting co-incidents.

The author is a writer with China Daily. zhangyuchen@chinadaily.com.cn