Digital Anthropology

A doctor said the girl had suffered from a syndrome of "seen but no reply" (已讀不回症候群). Though it was not a "formal" disorder, it was still a symptom of smartphone addiction.

In 2007, the China Communist Youth League claimed that over 17 percent of the country's 17-year-olds were addicted to the internet, making China the first country to declare internet addiction as a clinical disorder.

We often fret that we’re too attached to our smartphones or that we let them wield too much influence over our lives. But our reverence for technology is relative. In the remote Ambonwari society of Papua New Guinea, villagers believe that cell phones are extensions of their human owners and can be used to commune with the departed.

When their calls don’t go through, they don’t blame shoddy service or wrong numbers; they believe the spirits of the dead can interfere with their connections.

They haven’t had time to develop telephone etiquette have, either. Back in Slovenia, Telban’s phone rings nonstop. “They really love just to ring me,” he said. He never knows who’s calling, since villagers share the phones, and as soon as he answers, the other person hangs up: They don’t have enough credit for an actual conversation. But Telban doesn’t mind. “They are my friends,” he said. “They’re just saying hello.”