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Thoughts on books, publicity, and the media from our Cave Henricks staff.

Do I Have Nomophobia?

I was sitting on the couch this weekend, watching the news when I first heard it: nomophobia.

That’s right NOMOPHOBIA, aka “The fear of being out of mobile phone contact…an abbreviation for ‘no-mobile-phone phobia.’” Well, according to KVUE-TV News and Wikipedia anyway.

So you’re probably having the same reaction as I first did, which is, “what the heck?”

But over the last day or so I’ve been thinking a lot about it. And the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced I might know a few people who have it. Thing is, I might even be one. It’s certainly a job hazard to being a publicist – always wanting to be connected. Always on the alert for media requests and on call for our authors. One of my old bosses slept with her phone on her pillow every night. If you sent her an email or a text at 1:30am, you could expect a response at 1:35am.

I guess the big question is: do I need a response at 1:35am? Maybe. Probably not. While it’s easy to get caught up in work, is being a nomophobia actually beneficial to work? I’m not so sure.

A survey by the Mobile Mindset Study  found that 3 out of 5 smartphone owners in the U.S. do not go for more than one hour without checking their devices, and T-Mobile just commissioned a survey to find out how attached people are to their phones.

Here’s what they found:

  • Nearly half of Americans would miss their phone within an hour of being apart from it
  • 11% of Americans would rather leave home without their pants than their phone
  • 55% of women would rather leave home without makeup
  • 63% would rifle through the garbage to retrieve a lost phone
  • 25% of Americans would physically fight a thief to get their phone back

Those are some pretty hefty feelings for a piece of electronic equipment. Feelings that I’m completely guilty of having.

So, I’m giving myself a challenge this week: spend 2 hours (I don’t want to get totally carried away!) each night completely cell phone free.

Can I do it? I’ll keep you posted on how my week goes.

Can you do it? Tell me about your experience in the comments section below.