Tranter Banter

This was a new one for me! According to Digital Life, nomophobia is on the rise.  You should be nervous.  Nomophobia is the addiction to cell phones and 66 percent of the population is said to have it.

We know there are now over 100 million smart phone users in the United States and the normal cell phone user checks their phone an average of 34 times a day. 75 percent of people use their cell phones in the bathroom (digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com). We see signs posted everywhere to not use our phones or turn cell phones off while ordering at McDonalds, conducting business at the bank or Department of Motor Vehicles or around sensitive equipment such as a hospital.  Heck, Alec Baldwin received a ton of publicity when he was kicked off a plane for refusing to turn his cell phone off. 

Here are some signs you may be addicted to your phone. 

• You’ve cut back on your groceries to afford your monthly phone bill;
• You text your children upstairs to come down for dinner;
• You fight with your spouse by text instead of in person;
• You sleep with your phone under your pillow;
• A full battery doesn’t even last a day;
• You would chose to give up your toothbrush instead of your phone (don’t dismiss this one – according to TeleNav, Inc., a mobile app company, 22 percent of those polled said they would give up brushing their teeth for one week to keep their phones);
• You take risks like texting while driving despite the obvious consequences of being a menace on the road;
• You become nervous or angry when you can’t find your phone and resort to having your children call your phone so you can try and listen for the ring.

Cell phone addiction can be just as serious as other addictions.  In fact, addiction specialist, Michael Dow, told CBS news that “some people experience withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, insomnia and depression which are typically associated with substance abuse.”   He goes on to say that “It can actually creates [sic] a lot of cortisone in the brain and in the body that stress hormone is actually cardio-toxic.” 

Maybe being nomophobic isn’t something to take lightly or snicker about after all.