‘Nomophobia’ is a Thing for Many Cell Phone Users

Agencies – Sudan Events

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – If you can’t live without your phone, you’re not alone. And there is a word for that anxious feeling: “Nomophobia.”

That is short for “no mobile phone phobia.” While not an official phobia or mental illness, nomophobia describes the anxious feeling you have when you’re without your cell phone.

Tech expert Paul Hochman tells the Noon Business Hour that nomophobia is more than a fear of being disconnected.

That’s because your phone is a source of information. And how you get information on your phone is selected by app algorithms that are designed to keep you glued to your screen, Hochman said.

This is a long way from unwinding with a newspaper or magazine, he said.

“It was a choice made by the consumer to go pick up the paper, buy the paper, read the paper.”

One study found that, for nomophobics, being without a cell phone was as stressful as a trip to the dentist.