My dependence on devices reached an embarrassing low recently. As I hurried to leave for work one morning, I patted my back pocket and realized I did not have my phone. Seconds later, in a fully automatic behavioral response, I patted my back pocket again, this time reaching for my phone in order to help find my phone.
This unfortunate incident reveals two important aspects of what new research has called "nomophobia" (or, no-mobile-phone-phobia):
(1) the feelings of anxiety or distress that some people experience when not having their phone (“I don’t know where my phone is!), and
(2) the degree to which we depend on phones to complete basic tasks and to fulfill important needs such as learning, safety and staying connected to information and to others ("I'll just get my phone to help me").
Smartphones have increasingly become the tool we use to navigate and organize our daily lives. From keeping our calendars, getting directions, and communicating instantly with others, to helping us answer any questions we might possibly have about the state of our world or the people in it, our dependence on devices is clearly increasing.
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Category(s):Phobias
Source material from Scientific American
