The Age of Cellulus Interruptus

In the infamous Paris Hilton sex tape that was widely circulated on the Internet, at one point during the action, her phone rings. She lunges across the bed to answer it, much to the chagrin of her videotaping boyfriend. While Paris doesn't share much in common with everyday folk, it seems a surprisingly large minority do share her weakness for mobile phone calls over sex.

Is it a tale of modern, high-tech romance? An example of the modern tendency to always look around the corner for something better? Or just a reflection of how technology is stripping mankind of its humanity?

Perhaps the statistics recently unveiled in the magazine Ad Age pose a question for sociologists, philosophers, or at least sexologists to ponder. Why do 14 percent of the world's mobile phone users report that they have interrupted sex to answer a beeping wireless device?

"People can't bear to miss a call," said Christine Hannis, head of communications for BBDO Europe, which conducted the study along with Proximity Worldwide. "Everybody thinks the next call can be something really exciting. And getting so many calls proves social success," she said. "It fulfills a fundamental insecurity."

Germany and Spain, then, appear to have the highest levels of insecurity, with 22 percent in both countries reporting that grabbing that call was more important than finishing the task at hand (or at other parts of the anatomy). The lowest incidence of what might be called cellulus interruptus was reported in Italy, where only 7 percent of mobile phone users picked up the phone during sex.

Perhaps the sex is just better there.

It's not that mobile phones and sex are enemies, or even strangers. More than half of the respondents to the same survey, 52 percent, reported they used a mobile phone to flirt. A British company is selling software that transforms a cell phone into a sex toy. It's called "Purring Kitty" and according to the company launching it, Vibelet.com, it can turn certain phones into a "discrete, vibrating massager."