Other people may not confuse cows for their phones, but research shows phantom vibration syndrome, or its other nicknames — like hypovibochondria or ring-xiety — are a near universal experience for people with smartphones.

Nearly 90 percent of college undergrads said they felt phantom vibrations. The number was just as high for , who reported feeling phantom vibrations between a weekly and monthly basis.

“Something in your brain is being triggered that’s different than what was triggered just a few short years ago,” says Dr. Larry Rosen, a research psychologist who studies how technology affects our minds.

“If you’d ask me 10 years ago, or maybe even give years ago if I felt an itch beneath where my pocket of my jeans were, and asked me what I would do, I’d reach down and scratch it because it was probably a little itch caused by the neurons firing,” he says.