Nomophobia Endangering Health: Study

People are familiar with many types of fears such as acrophobia (fear of heights), aerophobia (flying), arachnophobia (spiders), or Nomophobia, the fear of being without a mobile device, or beyond mobile phone contact, which emerged out of our digitalized lifestyle.

This phobia is impacting our health and wellbeing, suggests a new study.

Research from Monash University shows that 99.2% of users have experienced a fear of not having their phone around.

The study —published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health — surveyed 2,838 Australians on their psychological attachment to their phone and usage habits.

Around half (43.3%) revealed that they spend over three hours on their phone daily. The study showed that the more time spent on the device, the greater the nomophobia and the higher the risk they would go to an extreme, and sometimes illegal, lengths to continue using their phone.

Those aged between 18-25 showed the highest levels of homophobia. The researchers discovered that users with nomophobia were 11.7 times possible to have a problematic phone dependency and 10.3 times more likely to use their phone in a prohibited space, such as a classroom or cinema.

The findings also showed that men were twice as likely to engage in dangerous use than women.

However, the most concerning in the finding was that these users were also 14 times more likely to put themselves and others in danger to use their device, like when they are driving, cycling, or walking.

Lead researcher, Ph.D. candidate Fareed Kaviani, stated that the fear of being without the mobile phone may be a rational response when they have come to rely on the device for staying in contact with friends and family.

"If your smartphone use is having a deleterious impact on the physical and/or psychological health of yourself or those around you, then that is a problem." Kaviani added.

In August 2020, a new study found that homophobia is extremely common among college students and is associated with poor sleep health. Preliminary results showed that 89% of a sample of college students had moderate or severe nomophobia.