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Addicted to phone? You

may be suffering

from nomophobia

of having no mobile phone — Nomo- tion, a finding that is contrary to those of
tehelka bureau phobia! Surprisingly, nine out of every the majority of existing studies on tech-
10 people, aged below 30, suffer from nological addiction. This study revealed
“Nomophobia”. A study by BMC Psy- various smartphone addiction symp-
o you check your smart- chiatry has identified four typical toms among young people, and these
phone the first thing on symptoms of smartphone addiction, include withdrawal, salience, conflicts,
waking up? Do you hear it namely, withdrawal (experiencing neg- and phantom phone signals.
buzzing even when it’s not? ative feelings when having no access A study by King’s College London,
D Do you experience fear, to smart phones), salience (constant says such addictive behaviour means
anxiety and perspiration when you checking and thinking about smart that people become “panicky” or “up-
suspect that you have lost your mobile phones), conflict (smartphone use in- set” if they are denied constant access.
phone or when its battery is just one terferes with family and work life), and The youngsters also cannot control
per cent and it is going to switch off any phantom phone signals (illusory per- the amount of time they spend on the
moment? Do you feel weird without a ception of a phone vibrating or ringing). phone. The study warns that such ad-
cell-phone and become nervous when Conscientiousness, neuroticism, and dictions have “serious consequences”
not getting messages on WhatsApp and extroversion increase the likelihood of for mental health. The research, ana-
Facebook? smartphone addiction. Notably, this lysed 41 studies involving 42,000 young
Well, experts say, you could be a study found that conscientious workers people in an investigation into “prob-
victim of No Mobile Phobia, the fear are likely to develop smartphone addic- lematic smartphone usage”.

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