Skip to main content

Fear of no cellphone: 9 out of 10 suffering from 'nomophobia'

Nine out of every 10 people aged under 30 admit to suffering the new age phenomenon of "nomophobia", the fear of having no mobile phone, a survey says.

Telecom giant Cisco, in a survey conducted on 3800 people in Australia, found nine out of 10 in the group aged under 30 were addicted to their smartphones and became anxious when their phone went missing, the 'Courier Mail' reported.

"It's happening subconsciously, and one out of five people are texting while they're driving," Cisco chief technology officer Kevin Bloch said yesterday. "It just speaks to these addictive, compulsive, behaviours that we're seeing."

"For many under-30s, the smartphone has become an extension of themselves, from the moment they wake up until the second they fall asleep," said Bloch.

"This love affair with the smartphone is both enabling and crippling at the same time," Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, official adviser to the Queensland Government on computer safety, was quoted by the daily as saying.

He added that these people check check for texts, emails and social media at least once every 10 minutes. That's checking the phone 96 times a day, assuming eight hours' sleep.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

'Ek Thi Daayan doesn't propagate witchcraft’

Emraan Hashmi is an antithesis of his over-the-top screen image. In real life, he has a wicked sense of humour, for only those who get it. When he debuted in 2003, critics were quick to write him off due to his non-hero looks and his choice of films. It has been a long journey and not a smooth one for him since his ‘Murder’ days. From a mass hero catering to mostly frontbenchers to bankable star super-hit potboilers, he has coursed the long mile. His performance as Jogi Parmar in 'Shanghai' made the critics sit up and take notice of him. With Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Ek Thi Daayan', Emraan's filmi graph has taken a new turn as he stars along with Huma Quereshi, Kalki and Konkona Sen Sharma. In a candid chat, the star tells us about his role and why he wants to get rid of his ‘kisser’ image. Excerpts from the interview: How did ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ happen? I was drawn to the story and the subject, written by Mukul which was adapted by Vishal. It was fascinating be

Health News

Motorola's tattoos could replace passwords

Motorola’s forthcoming phones could use electronic tattoos or pills to identify users, it has been announced.   The technology, which aims to remove the need to enter passwords and replace them simply with a phone being close to a user’s body, was one of the suggestions Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s chief executive, California's D11 conference yesterday. The tattoos have been developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm MC10, and contain flexible electronic circuits that are attached to the wearer's skin using a rubber stamp. Nokia has previously experimented with integrating tattoos into mobile phones, and Motorola's senior vice president of advance research, Regina Dugan, a former head of the US Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, demonstrated the silicon-based technology that uses bendable electronic circuits. Initially designed for medical purposes, Motorola hopes the ‘Biostamps’ could now be used for consumer authentication purposes. Motor