Nonophobia is the new phobia hitting the headlines, though you may be forgiven for never having heard of it before. Nonophobia refers to the morbid fear of losing your new or old cell phone, and it is on the rise, at least in the United Kingdom, according to a new survey.
SecurEnvoy, a firm which specializes in digital passwords, and OnePoll have conducted a survey of about 1000 people in the United Kingdom and discovered that two thirds of those responding suffer from the fear of losing their phone, an increase from just over 50 percent from the survey conducted four years ago back in 2008.
The increase is the consequence of more and more people being increasingly dependant on the mobile devices, says the co-founder of SecurEnvoy, Andy Kemshall. “The phone is more than just an item that you carry around such as any other jewelry,” he insists. “This phone is one that connects you to the outside world, almost to the point where if you lose your phone, you’ve effectively lost your wallet, your keys, your lifestyle (and) you can’t talk to anyone.”
Women experience this fear more than men, according to the survey, with the highest levels of nonophobia being registered by those between the ages of 18 and 24. Nonophobia however is not recognized as a real disorder in North America, and psychologist Randi McCabe says it won’t be any time soon, calling it a social phenomenon rather than a genuine phobia.