CF Apple Computer

Moments after Whitney Bennett purchased a new laptop, she walked through Manhattan hugging it to her chest. She is hoping this computer will return the favor, unlike her old one, with which she had a tumultuous relationship. “How could you do this to me?” the 21-year-old student at Baruch College recalled yelling in tears at her old Dell.

She treated it like an insolent classmate that was “being mean to me.” Bennett also recalled a former cell phone she suspected had something personal against her. Her iPod has yet to demonstrate its true nature, but Bennett points out that it is a recent purchase, and they don’t yet know each other well enough.

With a barrage of technological products released on the market every day, and a society that is increasingly dependent on them, researchers say that for many people gadgets have taken on human qualities. A recent study by the University of Chicago explains that people seek out human connections to their gadgets in an attempt to alleviate loneliness.

“When you’re bereft of human companions, you’ll create them,” explained Adam Waytz, a doctoral student in the social psychology department at the University of Chicago who collaborated on the study. Bennett was not surprised to hear that loneliness could account for some of her behavior. “Your gadgets are the only things with you all the time,” she said.