News The 12 most common ways we break our phones, according to AT&T

Almost everyone has broken a phone at some point or another. In fact, many of us have broken multiple smartphones over the past decade. You might suspect that younger people are slightly more likely to drop their phones, with 77% of us between the ages of 18 and 29 having dropped a phone. But older generations aren’t immune to edema either, with 74 percent of us between the ages of 30 and 44 having dropped a phone.

All these breakages add up: 1.5 phones are broken, lost or stolen every second, according to figures AT&T shared with me.

What are the most common ways we break our phones?

Discard them, as you might expect.

But 3% also had the unfortunate experience of having a dog chew on a smartphone. 5% of us have done something many of us would never dream of doing: drop our phone in a fit of rage.

This is how Americans smash their phones:

1. Drop when taken out of pocket or purse: 25%
2. Slips out of hand while talking or texting: 20%
3. Forget it’s on my lap when I stand up: 16%
4. Drop something on it: 10%
5. Dropped while taking pictures: 9%
6. Dropped in the toilet: 8%
7. Child broke: 7%
8. Take it into a pool, ocean or lake: 6%
9. Throw it away in a fit of rage: 6%
10. Drunk and broken: 5%
11. Dropped in the bathtub: 5%
12. Dog mistook it for a toy: 3%

(If you want some extreme honesty, I’m personally guilty of #1, #4, and #8. However, my wife – who would probably kill me for mentioning this – is tight in our home phone damage Followed by a lottery by dropping not one phone but two in the toilet…at the same time.)

To reduce damage to your phone, AT&T recommends keeping your phone in your pocket, using earbuds for audio, a smartwatch for notifications, and of course, a quality phone case. But you already know that, right?

One thing a broken phone would do is stimulate the economy. Or at least the smartphone economy. Smartphone shipments fell by a record 18.3% last quarter, according to IDC, as we continue to grapple with the aftermath of Covid, supply chain disruptions, high inflation and various economic ills.

In fact, smartphone shipments in 2022 will be the lowest since 2013, with 1.21 billion units shipped, according to IDC.

Obviously, we’ll need to tear apart a few more phones.