Try to remember the last time you were at a major phone company's retail store. If you can, you may also remember overhearing another customer regale a clerk about the epic party last night that resulted in one of the following:
- "I lost my phone at the bar."
- "My phone fell into the pool."
- "My phone got dropped into the toilet."
- "Someone must have stolen my phone last night."
Now, some young adults have come up with a slightly less expensive solution to help prevent losing their prized smart phones - a cheaper, more expendable "drunk phone."
Speaking to Advertising Agency, Laura Krajecki of marketing firm Starcom MediaVest found that some young adults choose to take "a cheap low-end phone" instead of their iPhone or another expensive smart phone when they go out at night to party.
"In studying beer, we started to discover that young adults cherish their smartphones and iPhones so much that they don't want to lose them if they have an epic night out," said Krajecki. She also pointed out that, perhaps oddly, the young adults surveyed kept both phones on their person instead of simply leaving the more expensive phone at home.
This information came from a marketing study primarily geared towards gathering data on the role of beer on Saturday nights out when compared to other drinks - the data about "drunk phones" came about unsolicited.
TIME Newsfeed's Keith Wagstaff put some cold water on the article, pointing out that Krajecki did not provide hard numbers on how many people carry second phones and writing, "this could be an entirely made-up trend."
Still, Wagstaff admitted that the phenomenon of losing one's phone in the myriad weekend evening activities is something worth looking at.
He did suggest looking for a simple device to act as one's drunk phone. "Remember, you're going to be out dancing to dubstep or drinking out of a giant boot, not playing with cool new apps on your phone."
Amanda and her boyfriend were out to eat the other night andwhen the bill came she went to the bathroom. When she came out her boyfriend said the bill was taken care of so they left. She felt like everyone was staring at them when they were leaving so...
