One in three Bostonians choose their cell phones over their sex lives

A recent survey found that 31 percent of Bostonians chose texting over sexing.

Ninety-three out of the 300 Bostonians surveyed said they would rather give up their sex lives for a year than their cell phones for the same amount of time, according to an Oct. 6 survey conducted by Samsung Mobile and led by Kelton Research.

The majority of the Bostonians who chose their phones were women, the survey said.

Boston University psychology professor Richard Ely said he wasn’t surprised about this disproportion because women have a stronger need for intimacy than men.

‘They are also less lonely and have richer social networks,’ he said. ‘A cell phone is just one way of maintaining and accessing that social network.’

Psychology professor Jean Gleason said she thinks women may be reluctant to say that sex is important to them.

‘It may also be the case that women are more dedicated to verbal interaction with others,’ she said.

Students were surprised that people would prefer technology over sex.

‘Wow, I could just go without my cell phone, sex or no sex,’ College of Arts and Sciences freshman Lia Damiani said.

But CAS freshman George Pitsakis said he thinks there might be another reason for why mostly women wanted to keep their phones.

‘These women just don’t have good sex lives that would be worth keeping,’ he said.

Samsung Mobile has previously commissioned similar national surveys, one of which investigated if Americans would rather give up their phones over chocolate.

This year’s survey is the first of the four conducted where people did not chose their cell phones over the other suggested alternative.

Samsung spokesman Kim Titus said his company chose Boston for this study because of its large population of college students.

‘Students are the most engaged with their mobile phones,’ he said.

Although the survey mainly compared the preference between sex and cell phones, Titus said the survey also showed something more romantic within that.

‘We have 81 percent of Bostonians texting, out of which 50 percent claim they text so that they could save the more sentimental texts,’ Titus said. ‘It’s nice to know that romance is still alive.’

Damiani said she could imagine some of her friends not wanting to give up their cell phones.

‘I think we all know or are people who get extremely distressed when they discover they have left home without their phone,’ she said. ‘There does seem to be a strong attachment to technology in our society.’

Pitsakis said he thinks negatively of the attachment to cell phones.

‘That’s pretty bad because then you’re never in the moment,’ he said. ‘You’re always drawn away from what you’re doing.’

Ely said he would not call the need for cell phones an addiction.

‘I think cell phones for some are just a primary means of communication,’ he said.

For human beings, he said, the social motive is far more powerful than the sexual motive.

‘We must remember humans are social animals,’ he said. ‘Sexual animals too, but social animals first and foremost.’