There's new scientific research about smartphones every second hour - the latest being that a quarter of us in the UK check them every 20 minutes, around 50 times a day - but scientisits have now come up with a questionnaire to measure the extent to which you suffer from nomaphobia (Otherwise known as no mobile phone phobia. Yep, that's a thing).
The BPS Research Digest reports that researchers){href='http://digest.bps.org.uk/2015/05/a-new-questionnaire-measures-peoples-no.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BpsResearchDigest+(BPS+Research+Digest)' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'} Caglar Yildirim and Ana-Paula Correia have developed a nomophobia questionnaire, with questions based on nine undergrads (five women) who were identified as being heavily dependent on their smartphones. Yildirim and Correia believe that nomophobia can be seen as a new form of 'situational phobia' - an intense fear that's triggered in specific circumstances, in this case, when one's smartphone is unavailable.
They identified four main topics and themes surrounding nomaphbia that kept cropping up: not being able to communicate, losing connectedness, not being able to access information and giving up convenience.
You can sort of test yourself - if you strongly agree with most of these, then you've probably got a bit of an issue. If you agree with most of them, then you're probably addicted to your phone. If you disagree with all of them then you are living in 1918. Simple.
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I would feel uncomfortable without constant access to information through my smartphone
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I would be annoyed if I could not look information up on my smartphone when I wanted to do so
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Being unable to get the news (e.g., happenings, weather, etc.) on my smartphone would make me nervous
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I would be annoyed if I could not use my smartphone and/or its capabilities when I wanted to do so
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Running out of battery in my smartphone would scare me
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If I were to run out of credits or hit my monthly data limit, I would panic
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If I did not have a data signal or could not connect to Wi-Fi, then I would constantly check to see if I had a signal or could find a Wi-Fi network 8. If I could not use my smartphone, I would be afraid of getting stranded somewhere
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If I could not check my smartphone for a while, I would feel a desire to check it
If I did not have my smartphone with me,
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I would feel anxious because I could not instantly communicate with my family and/or friends 11. I would be worried because my family and/or friends could not reach me
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I would feel nervous because I would not be able to receive
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I would be anxious because I could not keep in touch with my family and/or friends
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I would be nervous because I could not know if someone had tried to get a hold of me
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I would feel anxious because my constant connection to my family and friends would be broken
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I would be nervous because I would be disconnected from my online identity
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I would be uncomfortable because I could not stay up-to-date with social media and online networks
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I would feel awkward because I could not check my notifications for updates from my connections and online networks 19. I would feel anxious because I could not check my email messages
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I would feel weird because I would not know what to do
How many do you strongly agree with? We almost definitely have nomaphobia.
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Picture: Rory DCS
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.