Scared of Being Without Your Phone? You've Got Nomophobia

The fear of being without a phone is so prevalent it now has a clinical name, nomophobia, and the numbers of those afflicted is rising.

The study, commissioned by authentication-firm SecurEnvoy, found that 66 percent of the 1,000 people interviewed worry about being without a phone, up from just over 50 percent four years ago.

The news is not surprising, considering the increasing dependence on mobile gadgets for everything from GPS directions, weather reports, and social media to banking, texting, and games. A mobile device is a conduit not only to information, but to community, relationships and self-expression, and being without it causes anxiety and feelings of loss in many users.

Devices have become such constant companions that researchers from Chicago University's Booth Business School, analyzing the urges of 205 adults based on their priorities, found social networking is more addicting than other addictive behaviors like smoking and drinking.

As the dependency increases, however, so does the fear and other emotional dynamics[..]ociated with constant connectivity. For example, a buzzing smartphone text announcing "Having dinner at fab bistro," provides a real-time awareness of alternate happenings and increases FOMO, or the fear of missing out, leading to personal discontent that life isn't as Facebook-fabulous as it should be.

The prevalence and immediacy of mobile gadgets with apps for Twitter, Facebook and other social media exacerbates FOMO. To go or not to go -- that is the dilemma at the heart of this digital-induced crisis of confidence, illustrating the power and self-perpetuating nature of FOMO to stay on top of what everyone else is doing, sometimes to the point of social exhaustion.

Both nomophobia and FOMO underscore how mobile connections are the new ties that bind people together and reflect why they are so highly valued in the digital age.

The U.K. study also discovered that slightly more women suffer from the nomophobia than men, and the highest incidence of nomophobia is among the younger 18- to 24-year-olds, with 77 percent, showing nomophobia isn't going anyway anytime soon.

Source

People need smart phones like its air nowadays. iPhone=iCrack

lol. hell nah. i always do a check before i leave the house

iPhone
Keys
Wallet.

I thought it was a bad joke...no mo phobia....

I just need it to be on me or near me because of email etc. makes it easier than turning on a computer, people rarely even call dat !! just text anyway. but i dont freak out when it breaks or gets lost like lotta people do nowadays.

Its funny how they give everything a name now.

guess they will be developing a pill for this next..........................

!! a phone, no nomo

same here.

ppl cant even just say phone anymore,

my "iphone"

Always make sure I got all of them before I leave to go anywhere.
THAT and some music/drawing paper.

U need a phone near you?

A statement like that was unheard of just a decade ago

its mainly for the information and entertainment factor the internet gives imo, nobody's hugging their phone all day waiting for phone calls.

i forget my phone all the time...doesnt bother me just check it when i get home

same here, everyday

nah im not scared to be without my phone. Although i highly dislike being without it. Ill just be pissed throughout the day that i dont have it.

I actually have 2 (2nd for work) but i only keep one during work hours ,the other one is on silent mode ...i rarely use it cuz believe it or not ,i dont like to be available 24/7

this.


I dont even talk on that mutherfuker. i just text. and when i do talk on it its only for 30 sec - 2 min max

Not afraid to be without a phone but I do be feeling strange and stranded without it. I usually never forget it but sometimes I do but on a rarely basis.