“NOMOPHOBIA: An obscure type of Phobia but quite widespread among G10

Students of San Agustin High School”

INTRODUCTION

Today’s generation are living in modern technologies and the most common technology that

almost all of the people have it and using it is the mobile phone or the cellular phone. Even child or

elderly people are already using a mobile phone. It can be used for playing some games, connect to social

media, searching, for education purposes and especially to communicate with other person even they are

miles far away, they can still talk to each other every day or even as every minute. Mobile phone is now

really a big part in people’s lives, it is not a kind of wants or desire anymore because it is now a kind of

needs or in other words it is necessary for some people because it has lot of features that can help a

person, for example in their work or need to study something. In this modern world, some of the people

cannot live without their phones especially the youth. Every person that had been encountered in the

street are always holding on their phones. They are always using their phone first of all is for social

media, posting in the internet to update other people what happen to their day and of course they also

used it for their study. But what if there are no mobile phones invented. What if a person who is addicted

and always using his/her phones every minute unable to use it for atleast one day. Can they handle it or

not? How are they going to overcome it? What would be the effect of it in their attitude, mood, actions or

lifestyle? 

There is a phobia that is fear of losing or being without their mobile phone, it is called as a

nomophobia. “Nomophobia” originated in England and is derived from the phrase “No Mobile Phobia”,

that is the phobia of being without a mobile phone. Maybe almost all of the mobile phone users are

already experiencing this kind of phobia because the person is attached to their phones and it is hard for

them to stop using it when they used it always.Students with lower self-esteem and spent more time on

the phone were more likely to be problem phone users. It means that people who have low self-esteem are

mostly the one who have a nomophobia because they think that their cellphones are the only way to

express their emotions and they can freely express their feelings, thoughts and reactions about something
or to another person. Sometimes the phone is the leading causes of cyber bullying, to bully other person

through the use of social media. 

BODY

Nomophobia, or No Mobile Phobia, is defined as the fear of being deprived of a mobile phone.

Nowadays, it is also referred to as smartphone deprivation since smartphones are supposed to take the

place of traditional mobile phones. In terms of clinical psychology, the definition of nomophobia is also

expressed as irrational and involuntary fear that an individual cannot access or cannot communicate on a

portable computing device. Users that develop nomophobic behaviours start to worry when they forget to

take their phones with them, are out of charge or coverage and they obsessively control phones even

when they are next to them. Although nomophobia is not included in the field of clinical psychology,

studies about nomophobia are being conducted and its worldwide prevalence among individuals.

Sufferers were unable to do school work, found that interpersonal relationships suffered and felt

anxiety and loneliness without their smartphones. In research on undergraduate students in the US

Emanuel found that one-fifth of respondents were classed as totally dependent on their smartphones and

about one-half were overly dependent (Emanuel et al., 2015). 

Young individuals make more frequent phone checks to respond to messages from their friends,

follow up their messages and conversations and spend more time on social network sites via the mobile

Internet on smartphones. This situation might make young individuals dependent on social networks and

smartphones, as well as develop nomophobia. Conversely, Kuss and Griffiths (2017) state that

nomophobia might cause problematic smartphone use and that SNS addiction may be a factor in this.

Individuals who feel void when they do not have their smartphones think that this device has

become an indispensable part of their life. In addition, individuals‟ behavior of checking their telephones

without any reason or purpose can indicate nomophobia as well. Owing to individuals‟ excessive use of

their smartphones, it has become quite common for them to hear imaginary telephone ringing or

vibrations. These imaginary ringing or vibrations are revealed to be related to users‟ state of anxiety and
depression. Besides, individuals who experience a deprivation of smartphones are likely to experience the

problem of focusing on their daily chores as their anxiety level increases and they have sleep disorders

owing to their frequent telephone checks throughout the night.

Choliz (2010) underlines the fact that nomophobia is one of the strongest non-drug addictions in

the 21st century. Thus, nomophobia, which is accompanied with serious negativities, is becoming

increasingly widespread each day. Nomophobia is quite widespread especially among youngsters.

This study is significant in terms of raising awareness about nomophobia and the affect it can

have on students’ academic lives. Therefore, it is aimed to create awareness about nomophobia among

teachers, families, and school administrators in order to take preventive measures to fight against

nomophobia. Furthermore, it is thought that there are some risks of using m-learning practices in

education or especially using the Internet for the purpose of education and research.

Therefore, teachers should limit the amount of Internet usage time and families must control their

children’s Internet use because extensive use of smartphones, no matter for what purpose, carries inherent

risks for adolescents. Likewise, teachers and families must pay attention to the excessive use of mobile

Internet because, as confirmed by this current study, there is a significant relationship between

nomophobia and Internet addiction. Therefore, it is necessary to tackle the factors that cause nomophobia

in order to avoid its prevalence.

CONCLUSION

This study sought to know the percentage of the youth, specifically the students in Grade 10 class

that have been a high percentage of experiencing nomophobia. From the aforementioned findings,

the following conclusions are derived:

1. The Students are just using mobile phone within 2-5 hours because the respondents are students

so that most of their time is on school and students are not allowed to use their phone during class

hours. This means that students only have limited time on using mobile phone when there are

classes.
2. The Grade 10 students are strongly agree that communication, education and entertainment are

the main reason why does a person using a mobile phone. 

3. The Grade 10 students are strongly agree that possible effects of using mobile phone is lack of

sleep and also blurring of the eyes.

4. The Grade 10 are strongly agree that they feel bored when there are time that they are not using

their mobile phone for a very long time.

5. The students or some persons get addicted to mobile phone because of the features of mobile

phone for example is the social media and mobile games.