Did you know the average U.S. consumer is never more than three feet away from their phone?
This came from GetElastic.com, which made me think about the following question: If I took your phone away from you, in what ways would it hinder you?
I know I’d be in trouble with work. I’d miss out on social invitations. I’d lose touch with my parents and when showing up to a movie, I’d be reduced to shining a flashlight in everybody’s eyes while asking, “is that you, Stacy?” (And, by the way, I’d have to remember to bring my own flashlight, because without a phone, I wouldn’t have that either.)
A cell phone has become a necessity in life. We can’t function without a connection to the world and the average smartphone user checks it 40 times a day (while it remains in a three foot radius of their body). That is literally disgusting–literally. You take your phone into the bathroom with you and then keep it near your plate while you eat, but our cell phones have become an extension of us. They are like another limb.
If you feel separation anxiety with your phone, you are not alone.
Iowa State University recently conducted a psychological test that surveyed respondents about their phones. It asked for the truth in statements like, “I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone.”
Phone separation anxiety is a real issue that has lead some researchers to come up with a diagnosis: nomophobia–or no-mobile-phone phobia. The disorder is not recognized in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual…yet.
Our bets tell us it won’t take long for people to recognize they have nomophobia. A previous study of more than 2,000 U.K. adults found that 58% of men and 47% of women have the not-yet-real phobia. Additionally, respondents also said they feel anxiety when their phone has to be turned off.
Are we bad at connecting IRL?
Some would say nomophobia isn’t a real form of anxiety, it’s just an extension of other anxiety disorders projected onto a piece of technology. The real issue stems from our inability to connect socially or from having fears of isolation that are made more real with technology.
The phone is not the problem. It just provides a convenient outlet for a problem that has existed long before Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
[Featured Image Credit: Wonderlane via Flickr]