An emerging neuroscience research commissioned by telecom giant Ericsson revealed that even small content loading delays on smartphones could cause people's heart rate to increase by nearly 40 percent.

The study conducted last year involved 150 volunteers from Dusseldorf, Germany. The researchers studied their brain activity, pulse, and eye movements. The researchers found that single delays, including videos that are buffering, web pages loading, and selfies or photos taking over two seconds to upload, result in a 38 percent increase in heart level and eventually causing tension and higher stress levels.

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The culprit is the broadband connection being less than the ultra high-speed 4G connection, South China Morning Post reported. And it also raises the question of whether such negative effects would be alleviated with the birth of 5G.

The telecom industry is planning to install 5G networks within the next few years, and the broadband connection promises to download and upload up to a thousand times faster than 4G. It also boasts of boosting digital entertainment experience such as making streaming Ultra HD 4K video from networks like YouTube and Netflix possible.

5G speed also allows brand new applications of mobile technology like virtual reality as well as increasing a video resolution to 4K and capturing it in 360 degrees. That being said, selfies would likely be overlapped by a live broadcast of events in 360-degree VR and social media could eventually transform into an "event VR," in which people could pay to watch a live VR concert or any event.

Although 5G perks sound very exciting, such speed is not coming to handsets anytime soon. And currently, there are no available networks that could match 5G's offers yet.

"The scale deployment of 5G networks depends on two factors: the first is the release timetable of 5G standards, which is expected to be in the second quarter of 2018," Xiang Jiying, ZTE's chief scientist, said. "The second is the actual subscriber's need, and the deployment schedule of mobile carriers."