What is nomophobia or the fear of being separated from your smartphone?

Excessive fear of being away from your mobile phone is a phobia. Specifically, it is nomophobia. This would mainly affect generation Z, to which belong people born during a period when digital technology was already well established in society.

What is nomophobia?

Dating back to 2008, the term “nomophobia” is the contraction of the terms “no mobile phone” and the word phobia. It is simply the worry or fear felt at the idea of ​​being without a mobile phone or being unable to use it. It can be a loss of the smartphone, a lack of credit, a flat battery or even a lack of network coverage.

Nomophobia generally results in a state of anguish and anxiety. This also goes hand in hand with an impossibility to regulate its use. This state can unfortunately lead to a loss of social ties, but also the appearance of sleep disorders. In some cases, people may even suffer from depression.

A study to find more answers

Relatively little explored by science, nomophobia was the subject of a study recently published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports. The Portuguese researchers submitted two questionnaires to 495 volunteers aged 18 to 24. The goal? Understand what can hide behind nomophobia. One of the two questionnaires assessed the dependence of these young people vis-à-vis their smartphone while the second focused more on their overall level of anxiety, self-confidence and obsession-compulsion (OCD).

According to the results, there is no correlation between gender and the risk of nomophobia. Thus, men and women can equally develop this disorder. Moreover, it seems that the more you use your smartphone, the more you expose yourself to the anxiety of being separated from it. Let's quote a third rather interesting point: the study indicates that people who are anxious in general are more exposed to nomophobia. Indeed, these people often have a lack of self-confidence and already suffer from obsessive tendencies.

You should know that nomophobia is not yet formally recognized by science. Indeed, the use of the smartphone is not a pathology in itself, but a pathological use of the telephone can on the other hand prove to be problematic. Finally, this phobia seems to affect more young people belonging to generation Z following generation Y (millennials), that is to say individuals born after 1995.