A study carried out among young Portuguese people reveals that nomophobia, the panic fear of being separated from one’s telephone, is linked to general feelings of inadequacy and inferiority as well as to obsessive-compulsive behaviors.
- The more time spent on the phone, the more the stress of not having your smartphone in your hands increases.
- People showing signs of anxiety could see phones as a way to manage their stress, which would explain the feeling of panic fear when it is far from them.
Are you afraid of being separated from your phone for too long? It could be a sign of a deeper sense of inadequacy and inferiority and a tendency to have a more obsessive-compulsive behavior. This is suggested by a study carried out by American researchers from the University of Ohio State and carried out on young Portuguese people. The results were published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports.
The more time spent on the smartphone, the more stress increases
Researchers have studied the psychology of people who are nomophobic, that is, who have a panic fear of being separated from their phone. “It’s this fear, this feeling of panic, of ‘oh, no, I left my phone at home’”, continues Ana-Paula Correia, author of the study. This is based on the previous work of the researcher who created a questionnaire to assess the dependence of individuals on their smartphone. Another questionnaire, aimed at assessing psychopathological symptoms such as anxiety, obsession-compulsion and feelings of inadequacy was given to the 495 participants, aged between 18 and 24, in Portugal.
The study found that the more time participants spent on the phone, the more they reported feeling stressed when they weren’t holding their smartphone. Also, the higher the participants’ score on obsessive compulsion, the more they fear being without their phone. This psychological trait was measured by asking participants to rate how much they felt they had to check and recheck what they were doing. The results showed that the volunteers spend on average between 4 and 7 hours a day on their smartphone, mainly to go on social networks.
The phone, a fake stress management tool
Researchers believe that the way you use your phone influences the psychological state of the person using it. “There’s a difference between normal smartphone use that benefits a person’s life – for example, video chatting with friends when you can’t be together in person or using it for work – and the use of a smartphone that interferes with a person’s lifeexplains Ana-Paula Correia. This type of behavior is more likely to cause anxiety when we’re away from our phones.”
People showing signs of anxiety could see phones as a way to manage their stress, which would explain their feeling of panic fear when it is far from them. “This concept is not limited to the telephonecontinues the researcher. People use their phones for other tasks including social media, logging in, finding out what’s going on with their social media influencers. So being away from the phone, or having a phone with a low battery, can kind of break that connection and leave some people with feelings of restlessness..”
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