“Nomophobia” or the overreliance on mobile phones

There is no doubt that mobile phones have grown far much greater than any other digital devices and served as meaningful tools in people’s everyday life.

Whether you are a grown-up, youngster or adolescent, if you find yourself feeling permanently stressed, anxious and fearful when unable to use your smartphone - when losing or breaking it, even running out of battery or having no network coverage - you may probably suffer from a disorder called “nomophobia”. The term “nomophobia”, a shortened version of “no-mobile phone phobia”, first appeared in a 2008 UK post office study, coined by YouGov, a UK-based research organization, which revealed that 53% of mobile phone users experienced nomophobia. This study was made through a sample survey regrouping over 2,100 people.

An India study conducted to evaluate mobile phone dependence among students of a medical college and associated hospital of central India has also found that the average case of nomophobia was quite common amongst college students: 22% of participants showed signs of severe nomophobia and around 60% who took part in the study had moderate signs. That means, nomophobia has become a ubiquitous phenomenon increasingly influencing current adolescents’ lifestyle. Tantely, a Malagasy young woman who had her phone broken last week and totally acknowledged her addiction to her mobile phone. She says “I felt so nervous and depressed because I could no longer scroll my news feed on social media, which I was accustomed to in my free time and made me so obsessed. I am now compelled to beg for connection to friends whenever I feel the need to fulfill my burning desire to surf the net”.

Tips on how to manage and balance mobile phone addiction
Throughout her 2019 article entitled “Nomophobia: The fear of being without your phone”, published in Psychology Today, psychologist and Professor Elizabeth Hartney shared a few practical tips to handle obsession due to cell phone usage.

Meeting face-to-face and choosing real over virtual experiences
Elizabeth Hartney insists on why we need to balance screen time and in-person time. That means, prioritizing more human contact instead of spending a couple of hours in front of one’s screen texting or making a call with the purpose of trying to get all the news from friends or relatives. “Replace your cell phone with face to face communication” “when with someone else, turn it off or ignore when it rings” Hartney says. Similarly, engaging oneself constantly in real activities that do not involve virtual experiences is always beneficial. There are other best alternatives that are far more interesting than entertaining activities that go all online.

Setting up boundaries and finding a balanced approach
A balanced approach can be reached through establishing rules for device use. This means, when doing certain things that might not necessarily require any use of mobile devices such as during meal time, at bedtime, when hanging out with friends or just spending a quality time with oneself. Likewise, the overuse of cell phone can be controlled through adopting new habits such as avoiding it at certain times of the day and finding other ways to spend time, as psychologist Harney suggests.

There are actually various successful means to free oneself from this phenomenon called “nomophobia”. However, it is always up to us to decide if we want to be a servant or a master of technological devices.
                                                                                                                                        Source: Psychology Today