Digital Heartbreak: 73 Million Americans Have Damaged Their Smartphones in the Last Year

SAN FRANCISCO – February 10, 2017

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, love is in the air—and that’s sad news for smartphones. A survey conducted by SquareTrade, the highly rated protection plan trusted by millions of happy customers, found that people who have tried online dating are 47 percent more likely to have damaged their phone in the past year than those who haven’t. Ouch. Give those swiping thumbs a rest!

How are so many lovers damaging their phones?

• Attachment issues? People who picked their smartphones over their partners were 20% likelier to have damaged their phones in the last year.
• Love hurts? 74 percent of online daters have met up with someone in real life. They were also twice as likely to have damaged their phones.
• Phone karma? One in four people admitted to cheating on their partner (yikes). Cheaters were 19 percent more likely to break their phones (ha!).

“Now that millions of people are dating through apps, they’re not only breaking hearts, but also their phones,” said Jason Siciliano, vice president, global creative director at SquareTrade. “Although, that can spark conversation More than half of people surveyed said they’d ask how their date broke their phone if they saw it was cracked. Ah, love.”

Heartbreaks and cracked screens may be inevitable. Fortunately, SquareTrade can help with the latter. As for hearts, Valentine’s Day candy usually gets discounted on the 15th.

Methodology

Data Sources:

1. SquareTrade’s 2017 Valentine’s Day Survey conducted in January 2017 using AYTM. Feedback was collected from 1,000 online consumers.

2. The US Census Bureau’s 2012 and 2015 population estimates.
   NOTE: Number of Americans figures based on a combination of data sources 1 and 2.