Smartphone dependency up in China

Smartphone dependency is increasing as people find it hard to keep their hands off their handheld devices, a survey by China's largest Internet portal found. The survey by Tencent found 60 percent of respondents saying they check their phones in bed, and 16 percent said they used them for more than an hour before going to sleep, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Monday. Younger users say the country's Twitter-like weibo micro blogs, allow them to stay hyper-connected and keep up with their jobs, co-workers and friends in real time. Junior investment banker Chen Shuang says she needs to check her BlackBerry every hour. "Everybody at work does it," the 27-year-old says. "I panic if it's not in my sight. What if my clients need me? Or what if I miss breaking industry news that might affect my ongoing transactions?" Not everyone agrees being hyper-connected is a good idea. While smartphones can enhance work efficiency, they can also distract workers and be a primary cause of procrastination, said Guan Herong, social media director of online advertisement-tracker AdMaster. "The bombardment of information smartphones causes people to prune emails of important content and sacrifice time and energy that would otherwise be spent on important tasks."