‘Phantom buzzing’ is creeping out smartphone, smartwatch users

Call it the ultimate buzzkill: thinking you’re getting texts, calls or email alerts when you’re really not.

But it’s more than a daily annoyance. Mental health experts, according to the Wall Street Journal, refer to the condition as “phantom phone syndrome,” a phenomenon in which people who use smartphones and smartwatches (i.e., everyone) always feel their devices buzzing with alerts. And it’s not just because phones are set to vibrate; it happens when they are not only silent but often are nowhere near one’s body.

“This could really be categorized as a hallucination,” Michelle Drouin, a psychologist at Purdue University Fort Wayne, told the Journal. “You’re feeling something … that doesn’t really exist.”

The Post previously reported that it is classified as “a real psychological phenomenon” and a legitimate hallucination.