By:  Mariana Marcaletti

The Wall Street Journal’s mobile and emerging technology editor, David Ho, likes to start industry conference talks by asking everybody to pass their cell phone to the person to the right. Then he stays silent until the fidgeting and murmurs reach a crescendo.
“It turns out that people would rather forget their keys at home than their smartphones,” Ho said.
People get anxious, he notes, because giving up their mobile connection, even for a minute or two, feels like unplugging part of themselves. Waking up means plugging in: A study by the International Data Corporation, a market research outfit, found that nearly 65 percent of smartphone owners reach for their mobile devices first thing in the morning.
It doesn’t stop there: The Pew Research Foundation reported that people check their smartphones an average of 100 times a day.
“How many times do I check my phone every day? I don’t know, I don’t count them … all the time?” said Jimena Murillo, a 24-year-old Mexican-born interior designer who lives in New York.
News organizations, from startups to legacy outlets, are competing with one another — and the rest of the digital world — to grab the time of Murillo and the…

Originally posted on Mediashift

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