Phone Phobia: Are You a Smartphone Addict?

I used to think that Mobile Phone Addiction was bunk…

Until I got one.

Each time I leave the house, I check my pockets. Car keys? Check. Wallet? Check. Chap Stick? Check. Phone? Double check. After all, what happens if I get a flat tire?

Studies show that once an emergency-only device, the mobile phone has become a security blanket for most people. And why shouldn’t it be? The whole world is at your fingertips. Email, music, calculator, apps galore – you name it, you can access it. I won’t even get into how smart I can sound having Google so readily available.

But enough about me. How do you react when you’re away from your phone? Do you get anxious, feel cut off from the world or out of the loop?

Almost everyone (younger generations, in particular) can develop a sense of attachment to their mobile device. In a world where so many people are constantly connecting via texting, Facebook, Twitter (this blog) – being without such instant access to the world can leave a person stranded in the abyss that is life without a phone.

What is it about that little buzz or ringtone that eats away at us when we know there’s a message, email or tweet to read? According to Geekosystem, “22 percent of people (surveyed) said they would be willing to go a week without seeing their significant other rather than go without their phone.”

The challenge here is balancing connectedness with contact. How do we interact with both our outside world and our immediate surroundings? There may be no easy solution, but the next time your phone goes off, ask yourself: Is it really the end of the world if those tweets don’t get read? If you don’t check that email in the middle of the night?

The answer is different for all of us.

Wondering if you’ve got a cell phone problem? Take the test.

Thanks to Mandy for her contributions to this post