Nomophobia is spreading

Fear of losing a mobile phone, lack of a mobile connection, nomophobia primarily threatens those obsessed with social networks.

Those who are obsessed with social networks are primarily threatened by the new disease nomophobia, the fear of losing a mobile phone or the lack of a mobile connection. In February, a survey was conducted among about a thousand mobile phone users in Great Britain, where the term nomophobia appeared in 2008. 66 percent of the respondents said that they are "anxious at the thought of losing their mobile phone".

Among the young people between the ages of 18 and 28 surveyed during a poll commissioned by the mobile phone security company SecurEnvoy, this ratio was 76 percent. 40 percent of the respondents said that they have two mobile phones. "With the advent of smartphones and unlimited flat rates, the phenomenon only got stronger. Everyone has access to a whole range of services: Where am I? Is there a restaurant nearby? I'll buy the train ticket for the weekend, I'll plan my evening program," concluded Damien Douani, FaDa agency's new technology expert.

"Several years ago, SMS was a form of nomophobia, they called those who texted non-stop, the thumb generation, but the internet smartphone is worth ten thousand times that of SMS," according to the expert. "The Google-reflex has been added to a mobile phone, if I need information, I can find the answer anywhere, this is an inexhaustible possibility," emphasized Damien Douani.

According to a survey of 22 users conducted by the company Mingle in March, 1500 percent of French people admitted that they cannot spend a day without their mobile phone. Among 15-19-year-olds, this rate was 34 percent. 29 percent of the respondents answered that they can hardly live without their mobile phone for more than 24 hours, while 49 percent can live without it "without any problems".

"It's understandable that people become addicted to their smartphones, since they have their whole lives in them, and if they lose them or break down, they feel completely cut off from the world," emphasized writer Phil Marso, the annual World Mobile Phone Free Days held from February 6-8 organizer. "This device dehumanizes me. I once saw a man browsing the map of the city district on his smartphone instead of asking me where the street he was looking for was,” he said.

"At the same time, social networks create connections with communities, which creates a need for constant updating and consultation. If there was a counter on the phone that would show how many times a person looks at it, many people would be surprised," says Damien Douani, who says that it is "a real expansion of the field of addiction". "A new symptom has appeared: I am constantly on the network, I check my phone to see if..."

"We live in a robot-like society where we have to do a series of things at the same time. A part of the population thinks that if it is not switched on, they are missing out on something. However, if a person misses something or cannot react immediately, anxiety and nervousness develop. People are impatient,” said Phil Marso, who wrote his first book entirely in text messages in 2004. "The smartphone destroys a kind of fantasy. You get everything on a tray, there is no longer such spontaneity or surprise as if you just walked into a restaurant instead of searching on your mobile phone. We eradicated a kind of unexpectedness from our lives," the writer believes.

Source: MTI