Nomophobia – A New Word, A Familiar Feeling

This morning, while enjoying a cup of coffee and scrolling through Facebook, Mr. Old Man came across a word he had never seen before:

Nomophobia.

The word refers to the fear or anxiety of being without a mobile phone or being unable to use it.

When Mr. Old Man was studying English some decades ago, this word did not exist in his vocabulary. That is hardly surprising. Back then, mobile phones and smartphones belonged to the realm of science fiction.

To be honest, learning one more English word is no longer a major achievement for Mr. Old Man. Over the years, he has probably forgotten more English words than he remembers.

What interested Mr. Old Man was not the word itself, but the concept behind it.

And he must admit that nomophobia is very real.

It is not limited to teenagers. Business executives, office workers, taxi drivers, delivery riders, retirees, and just about anyone who owns a smartphone may feel uneasy when they leave it at home or cannot use it.

A few decades ago, people worried about forgetting their wallets.

Today, many people worry more about forgetting their phones.

Even Mr. Old Man, who receives very few important phone calls these days, occasionally feels that something is missing when sitting in a coffee shop without a smartphone to browse the web, read the news, or check social media.

Smartphones have quietly become much more than communication devices.

They serve as calendars, cameras, maps, notebooks, photo albums, newsstands, entertainment centres, and, increasingly, external memory banks.

Ironically, as the years go by, Mr. Old Man sometimes finds himself forgetting things that once seemed impossible to forget.

Yet through the word “nomophobia”, he has learned something new about modern life.

Perhaps people are not really afraid of losing a phone.

Perhaps they are afraid of losing access to a small device that now stores so much of their daily lives.

Have you ever gone back home simply because you forgot your phone?

__________

Mr. Old Man

Note: The cartoon version of Mr. Old Man was created by AI.

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