Americans Can’t Disconnect, Even in Off Hours

Picture this… You’re taking a long weekend hike with your family. You tell jokes, sing silly songs while admiring the trees and streams. You have no cell phone reception, no laptop; you haven’t answered a call, responded to a text or e-mail missive all day. You have absolutely no idea what it is going on at work.

Are you freaking out? Does the thought of this digital isolation make you tense? Is this the very opposite of what you consider relaxing?

If so, according to a new study by the Solutions Research Group, you are in the majority of Americans, who are fixated, nay, borderline obsessed with being connected at all times.

Sixty eight percent of Americans feel anxious when they’re not connected in one way or another, they find, and this “disconnect anxiety”–feelings of disorientation and nervousness when a person is deprived of Internet or wireless for a period of time–affects all age groups, who described their feelings as dazed, tense, inadequate and even panicked.

The study also had a several points of humorously embarrassing data, such as the fact that 63 percent of BlackBerry users admit they have sent a message from the bathroom, and 37 percent of laptop owners said they “frequently” used theirs in the bedroom.