Swap my mobile phone for a million pounds? No way!

This might seem hard to believe, but according to research carried out by the Carphone Warehouse and the London School of Economics, one in three people aged 16 to 24 would not give up their mobile phone for a million pounds.

The phone-centric survey, called Mobile Life, was carried out across the UK and questioned 1,256 people aged 16 to 64 on a variety of topics, including whether or not they would sacrifice being able to own or use a mobile phone ever again for a whopping £1m.

Carphone Warehouse also filmed 24 volunteers try to survive without their phones for a week, which produced some quite extraordinary results. I totally understand, as I tried to live without a mobile phone during my 8-step technology detox and it was a very weird experience.

It seems that most young people view having a mobile phone as a vital part of their life. This coincides with research done by Gfk that shows the UK as being the largest market for consumer electronics in Europe. Apparently we're going to spend a whopping €13.1bn (£8.8bn) this year -- a hefty £144 each. In comparison, Germany will spend €12.3 billion and France a paltry €9.6 billion, even though they have larger populations.

So young people really like having a mobile phone and we all love buying gadgets. But before you dismiss this research as stating the bleeding obvious, think about this -- if someone had told you even ten years ago that people would be taking out second mortgages to buy flat screen TVs, and teenagers would reject offers of a million pounds for giving up their phone, would you have believed it?

-Andrew Lim