Word of the day – nomophobia

By Simon

Today’s word, nomophobia, is a recent coinage that means the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. It’s a contraction of “no moblie phobia”.

Something like half the mobile phone users in the UK might suffer from this condition, according to a recent survey undertaken by the Post Office. A lot people apparently feel anxious if their phone out of charge or credit, if they lose their phone or if they can’t get a signal.

Are you a nomophobic?

15 thoughts on “Word of the day – nomophobia”

  1. I’m not! My phone has needed charging for over a week now, but I can’t be bothered to find the cable for it.

  2. I thought it would be something to do with people who liked breaking the law. I frequently loose my cell phone and it´s normally uncharged. ActuallyI think I have a messageon it, but have not had any credit on it for about 4 months.

  4. i completely agree with nan. i feel lost without available internet enabled computers around. but i get used to it in a few days, though its hard to keep up with the world. 🙂

  5. I used to be nomobiphilic. I loved being without my mobile phone. I loved the freedom of knowing the thing won’t be ringing and annoying me.

    Now that I have a girlfriend I need to carry it around everywhere so we can contact each other. It makes sense and it’s handy but I love when we are together and the weekends and both our mobile phones are far from sight! I also hate it when I am teaching a class and some arsehole student is using their phone or receiving a call.

  6. well, I agree with Nan for the “Nonetphobia” … as for my mobile ……….. it works fine until the moment that you really need it. Til then it won’t work.
    I don’t know if it is connected to the Nomophobia, but sometimes I do feel some fear that when I get into trouble and CERTAINLY my mobile won’t be working then. It happened to me many times.

    I have also, if I can call it so, the Monday-phobia, which makes me hate every Monday that passes ……. 90% of my troubles and accidents come in this day!

  9. I actually need to turn off my phone or at least put it on vibrate after I get home from work so I don’t go insane from people calling me.

    However, on the other hand, if I don’t have Internet access, I may as well be dead. So chalk another up for nonetphobia! 🙂

  11. Another good example of why one cannot rely on etymology to ascertain the meaning of a word.

    When I saw ‘nomophobic’ I immediately thought, “Oh, that must be the fear of laws” (from the Greek nomos and phobos), but alas, it is something else.

  12. Seumas: if there is anything like “fear of laws” then it has certainly to be “TJeophobia”

  14. Please abstain from use of this term in connection with mobile phones. If there has to be a term, it could be ‘nomobiphobia’. Nomophobia means ‘fear of the law’ and the English vocabulary already contains words such as nomos, nomocracy, nomogeny, nomogram, nomography, nomology, nomological, nomothete, nomothetic, nomotopic, all connected with the law. The barbarian who coined this term should be given a short course in Greek and word formation (the former should be enough punishment).

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