Nomophobia

A friend recently told me about nomophobia and I think I may have it.  Nomophobia is a fear of being without your cell phone.  It is a recent phenomenon. For obvious reasons.

I was fairly late coming to the cell phone scene.  When they first became popular they seemed so unnecessary.  I’d lived my entire life without one and never thought much of it. Eventually we decided that since I was often out on the road with the children it would be good to have one for emergencies.  I couldn’t imagine needing more than a handful of minutes a month.  After all, I would only use it if I were stranded on the highway or locked out of my car.

The first time I saw a teenager with a cell phone I was a little disgusted.  I couldn’t figure out what a teenager would need with a cell phone if he wasn’t a drug dealer.  What could he possibly need to talk about that couldn’t wait until he got home?

We bought our second cell phone a year or two later.  This enabled us to call each other when we got separated in WalMart.  This is a vast improvement over our previous technique of asking the sales clerk to broadcast over the PA system a request for a lost husband to meet his wife at the checkout stand. It also made traveling in separate cars much easier.  

We moved about every three years during my husbands military career.  After the first move we had two cars, which meant I had to drive one while my husband drove the other.  We would divvy up the luggage and children and head out.  If someone needed a potty break or was ready to eat, we had to somehow let the other driver know.   Communication was most often done by flashing the lights and signaling to pull over.  Then we would confer on the side of the road. The advent of the cell phone was a godsend.

When my oldest daughter went away to college we got her a cell phone.  Everyone else followed pretty quickly and soon we were a 7 cell phone family, with the youngest child having one by the time she was ten.  She wasn’t a drug dealer - at least not to the best of my knowledge.

But up to this point I still didn’t have nomophobia.  The turning point came when I got an iPhone.  I became completely enamored with this amazing piece of technology.  Sure it’s a phone, but it is so much more.  One morning I realized I had already used my phone for 10 different activities.  I had woken up to it’s alarm, listened to music, checked the weather, read scripture, used the timer to cook breakfast, checked my e-mail, played a game of solitaire, sent a text, checked facebook, and taken a picture.  This was all before 9 a.m.!  No wonder I feel lost without it.

So, how bad is it?  The other day I got in the car to drive a few blocks to pick up my daughter from school and realized I had left my phone charging next to my recliner.  I had to turn around and go get it.  I keep it in my back pocket at all times when it isn’t charging.  Worst of all, I can’t go to the bathroom without it.  I don’t routinely make calls while in the bathroom, but I do “check my traps” during this period of unavoidable delay.  I use the time to check facebook, the weather, my e-mail, and anything else I have time for.  While I’m in the shower I put it on the back of the toilet just to keep it close by.  At night I charge it next to my bed.  At the hospital where I worked most people seemed to keep their phones in their bags.  I kept mine in my pocket.  It was on silence, but I just couldn’t bring myself to be separated from it.  And just in case you’re wondering, you don’t really have to turn off your phone while in an airplane.  They can’t tell.  I do put it in airplane mode.  Wouldn’t want to risk running out the battery!  

According to an article I read on-line, true nomophobes have panic attacks when they can’t find their phone.  I don’t know if this would happen to me because I haven’t been in that situation.  But I will say that I recently upgraded to the iPhone 4S, and when I experienced a few technical difficulties in the set up phase, I was not, shall we say, in a good place emotionally.  I got it worked out, but it was touch and go there for awhile.  I didn’t actually wet myself, or throw the phone, or exchange verbal insults with the genius at the genius bar, but I felt like doing all three at some time during the process.

At this point I don’t plan to do anything about my condition.  I suppose if it starts interfering in my life I’ll have to look into some kind of therapy.  I wonder if there’s an app for that?