Have you ever heard of this phobia? Nomophobia is the fear of being separated from your mobile phone (Giles, 2013). Yes, the cell phone epidemic has gotten so bad that they named a fear in association to it. How many of us could probably say, not out loud, that we suffer from some level of nomophobia? I hate to admit it, but I could probably say I suffer from some level of nomophobia. As a mother of three kids I feel responsible for them 24/7 and therefore feel I need to have the ability to be in constant contact or be able to be reached 24/7. This is one of the advantages of cell phones as well as one of the disadvantages. Being constantly connected to your mobile device can be detrimental to anyone’s health.
Using cell phones can reinforce new social behaviors and ways of thinking, including both desirable and undesirable behavior (Commentary, 2017). With the mobile ability of being connected to other people and the World Wide Web 24/7, we as a nation have developed some new and widely acceptable behaviors. Some of these include; being on our cell phones either talking, texting, emailing or etc. while in the bathroom, taking “selfies” anywhere and everywhere, recording any type of random public happening and so much more. One of the major bad habits created with the use of cell phones is texting while driving, or really, using your phone in any manner while driving. I can’t tell you the number of times I will be driving down a major highway, which is marked as 70 miles an hour now, and look over to see someone flying by watching their cell phone instead of watching the road! As a matter of fact, I almost got ran off the road into the center concrete barriers by someone that was using their cell phone instead of watching where they were driving.
There was a police report in my local paper just this week about a man wrecking his vehicle here near town because he was too busy reading a text message he had received while driving. Thank goodness the man was not injured too badly or killed, but too often death does occur. Texting while driving has been proven to be 6 times more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol (Giles, 2013). Let that sink in for a minute. I understand the desire to want to be constantly connected, however not at that cost.
References:
Giles, Kevin (2013). Treatment4Addiction.com. Cell Phone Addiction: A New Epidemic. Retrieved from http://www.treatment4addiction.com/blog/cell-phone-addiction-epidemic/
Lesson 9 Commentary (2017) Applied Social Psychology. Retrieved from: PSU World Campus https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1834710/modules/items/21736689
I love that you chose to discuss the addiction we all seem to have to our cell phones. Isn’t it amazing that the cell phone has not even been around for 100 years and our lifestyles depend so heavily on it? I would have to unfortunately agree with you that I too would consider myself to have some degree of this ‘nomophobia’. I like having literally everything at my fingertips at all times. I was looking online to see other articles that had to do with your subject and I found a satistic that struck me as beyond strange. In the article written by Catey Hill, figure 2, she discusses a diagram that has it listed that 30% of people 65+ feel they could not live without their cell phones (Hill, 2016). How absurd is that?! Even the older crowd who did not grow up with this technology or even in the midst of it has developed somewhat of an addiction. I feel that 30% is still rather high for that age group. Although there are a million downsides that go along with this technological addiction, Hill uses a statement that I find to be rather important and worth noting; “data shows that millennials are more likely than other groups to use their phones to look at educational content, find and apply for jobs and learn more about a health condition” (Hill, 2016). I can agree that as a 22 year old female I use my cellphone for anything you can think of. I use it for social media, to contact long distance people (via texts, calls, even video chat), I use it to look for jobs and even apply, to online shop, do my banking, to take pictures of anything anf everything, etc. There a hundreds of things I probably do on my phone. To be honest I read your blog post on my cellphone and I would have replied on it too if I knew how to do the APA citation by heart. In the other article I read by Uptin Saiidi, she mentions “Nearly half of those surveyed agreed they would be happier if they used their their phone less” and I can also agree with that (Saiidi, 2015). I would love to be able to put my cellphone down without feeling a twing of anxiety. In regards to cellphone addiction I think it relates heavily to cultivation theory mentioned by Ewoldson and Roskos in our textbook. They define it as the exposure to our culture which we learn through how much television we watch (Ewoldson & Roskos, 2012). Think about that for a second, why do you or anyone want a cellphone? Pretty much any and all people have a cellphone on TV whether it be a movie, show, or commercial. We are constantly shown that the social norm is to be on and have a cellphone for everything.
References
Ewoldson, D. R., & Roskos, B. (2012). Applying Soical Psychology To The Media. In F. W. Schneider, J. A. Gruman, & L. M. Coutts, Applied Social Psychology (pp. 135-163). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Hill, C. (2016, June 21). Millennials engage with their smartphones more than they do actual humans. Retrieved from Market Watch: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/millennials-engage-with-their-smartphones-more-than-they-do-actual-humans-2016-06-21
Saiidi, U. (2015, November 8). Companies to smartphone addicts: Put it down! Retrieved from CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/06/millennials-phone-usage.html
This was a wonderfully written blog. I have never heard of this phobia before. It really makes sense though, especially in the younger generation that need that constant and instantaneous satisfaction. Did you know that there is also now a link between the release of dopamine as a reward factor when you receive a text, like, or other social media “ding” (Soat, 2015). I think this is one of the challenges, along with breaking away and trusting our kids in today’s world. I am also a mom of three and can sympathize with your plight!
Resource
Soat, M. (2015, November). Social Media Triggers a Dopamine High. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/feeding-the-addiction.aspx