Our attachment to our mobile phones is only going to worsen as the manufacturers continue to up their game.
The rise of ‘nomophobia’ – the fear of being without your mobile phone – is completely understandable.
As smartphones increasingly become the norm for most of the nation, I am shocked that only 66 per cent of those recently polled on this issue, said they were suffering from this 21st century syndrome.
I recently left my phone at home on a work day and I genuinely felt panicked without it. My phone is now my email device, camera, games console, Twitter dashboard and social network controller – all rolled into one.
Despite how pathetic the reliance will seem to some, we are now at the tipping point. More than 50 per cent of the nation now claim to suffer from this new phobia and understandably so.
The camera industry, games companies and even the PC providers, are all competing with this one device – which has rolled several gadgets into one – and is doing it better every year.
Admittedly, it’s a pleasure on a non-work day to forget your phone. It’s important to disconnect and have some down time. In fact at the start of this year, we wrote about the need for the ‘digital diet’.
However, the increase of our reliance on our phones has happened so rapidly, that I can remember a time, only three years ago, when I wouldn’t check my work emails during the evening.
Now that thought seems incomprehensible. Whether or not it’s bad for us, our addiction to our phones is here to stay and ‘nomophobia’ will understandably continue to rise, as the mobile manufacturers continue to up their game.
Writer: Emma Barnett.
