Nomophobia an Emerging Fear: An Experimental Exploration among University Students

Abstract

Modern communication technologies have become a very essential part of our lives, especially smartphones (Salehan & Negahban, 2013). Present study explored the effects of fear of separation from the smartphone on university students. The sample comprised of three hundred students of Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan with age range of 18-30 years. The purpose of this present study was to explore the existence of nomophobia among smartphone users. Furthermore, it was aimed to investigate effect of smartphone separation causes anxiety. An experimental research design was used and participants were randomly assigned to two conditions. Two measures were used in the study they included, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) developed by Spielberger, (1983) and nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q) developed by Yildirim ( 2015). Results revealed that 68% of the students experienced moderate level of nomophobia and the level of anxiety gradually increased with increase in duration of separation from phone. One- way analysis of variance found significant difference on different levels of anxiety in experimental group I and experimental group II. No significant gender differences were found for state anxiety and nomophobia. It is concluded from the findings of the study that excessive use and dependence on smartphones does cause anxiety and feeling of restlessness in the absence of smartphone.