Smartphone is now ‘the place where we live’, anthropologists say

A UCL study has found people around the world feel the same about their devices as they do about their homes

Smartphone users have become human snails carrying our homes in our pockets", with a tendency to ignore friends and family in favour of their device, according to a landmark study.

A team of anthropologists from UCL spent more than a year documenting smartphone use in nine countries around the world, from Ireland to Cameroon, and found that far from being trivial toys, people felt the same way about their devices as they did about their homes.