Afraid to be without your cellphone? You’re not alone

Photo: Quinn Dombrowski

You’re at the mall, sitting while your young one hangs out in the play area, and you reach for your cellphone for a quick game of “Angry Birds” to stave off mind-numbing boredom when it hits you — you left your phone at home. You can even see it in your mind’s eye, plugged into its charger on the kitchen counter.

Do you shrug it off, or does the revelation put you into a state of dread? If it’s the latter, you may be suffering from “nomophobia.”

Nomophobia is a fear of being without your cellphone or mobile device, and the number of nomophobes is on a sharp increase, according to the Los Angeles Times.

SecurEnvoy, a maker of cellphone security technology, conducted a recent poll that showed 70% of UK women surveyed had a fear of being without their phones, and when the results were split out by age group, young people between 18 and 24 were a whopping 77% “nomophobic.”

Andy Kemshall, co-founder and CTO of SecurEnvoy, said that the numbers were up from 53% in a similar study it conducted four years ago.

The study also showed that 49% of people surveyed would be very bothered by a partner viewing their texts or messages.

While the study was conducted in the United Kingdom, United States cellphone users appear to be no less addicted — in a poll last year, 33% of respondents said that they would rather give up sex than spend a week without their smartphone.