{Excerpted from an article in The New York Post}

By the time you’ve read this, you’ll probably feel a strong urge to check your phone.

According to new research, Americans check their phone on average once every 12 minutes “ that’s 80 times a day.

A study by global tech protection and support company Asurion found that the average person struggles to go little more than 10 minutes without checking his or her phone. And of the 2,000 people surveyed, one in 10 check their phones on average once every four minutes.

Four hours is the longest time the average person studied was prepared to go before the need to check their phone becomes too much.

The survey also revealed that separation anxiety is indeed real, as 31 percent feel regular anxiety when separated from their phone and 60 percent reported experiencing occasional stress when their phone is off or out of reach.

Despite how crucial our phones are too many aspects of modern life, one in five respondents still hasn’t gotten a protective case for their device. Which might explain why 17 percent currently use a damaged but still-working phone.

62 percent would prefer to go a week without chocolate rather than lose their phone for just one day.

Four in 10 Americans would rather lose their voice for a day than lose their phone for 24 hours.

Smartphones have become the remote control to our lives, not only storing our contacts, calendars and photos but also serving as the main operating hub for connecting to our smart home devices, our car Bluetooth systems and more. So, when your device is lost, stolen or broken or simply isn’t connecting correctly, it can have an immense impact on your daily life,  said Bettie Colombo, Asurion spokesperson.

The phone is increasingly integral in other areas of life “ from staying in touch with family and friends via messaging to evolving our dating lives and literally telling us where to go – 41 percent of those surveyed said they would be literally lost and wouldn’t be able to navigate without the GPS function on their mobile phones.

In fact, phones serve so many functions for people that it’s now debatable what the purpose of the phone is in modern times. Results were split when respondents were asked if making a call is the main purpose of a phone, with 51 percent saying yes while 49 percent felt phones are no longer primarily for phone calls. A third of respondents said their phone is what they turn to most frequently for telling time, setting reminders and even waking up in the morning, and that they would struggle to get themselves organized without their device.