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Nomophobia

Vangie Beal
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:50 am

Nomophobia means the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. The phrase was coined by a U.K. study commissioned by SecurEnvoy as an abbreviation for no-mobile-phone phobia, and it found that two-thirds of mobile phone users get anxious when losing their phone, running out of battery power or finding themselves in a location without network coverage.

The study also showed that younger people (18 to 34) are more likely to be nomophobic, and the level of nomophobia has increased from 50 percent to 66 percent in the last four years. It also found the average case of nomophobia causes stress levels similar to those of suffering anxiety related to “wedding day jitters” or going to the dentist.