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This study is an attempt to understand the modern age mobile phone addiction- nomophobia and its relationship with impulsiveness in youngsters. Nomophobia is on the rise in the population on account of technology dependence and penetration of mobile phones in the society. The literal meaning of nomophobia is the no-mobile-phone phobia. It is an anxiety experienced by an individual when he/she is not having access to their mobile phone. Impulsiveness is lack of impulse control and inability to delay gratification. This paper also examines gender differences in nomophobia and impulsiveness. For this purpose, sample was drawn from college students. The sample comprised two hundred bachelors and masters degrees students (N=200) i.e., one hundred males and one hundred females from the age range of 18-23 years. The questionnaire was administered to them after procuring informed consent. The techniques of Pearson Product Moment Correlation and student's t-test were employed for the analysis of data.
Keywords: nomophobia, addiction, technology, impulsiveness
"Technology is a queer thing. It bringsyou greatgifts with one hand, and it stabsyou in the back with the other".
-Carrie P Snowcomedian
The advent of technology in 20th century affected our lives in a big way. The technology is habit-forming and as a by-product, the dependence of Homo sapiens on technology is showing a steady increase for a couple of decades. Salehan and Negahban (2013) stated that Information and communication technologies (ICT) are indispensable today as human beings are heavily dependent upon these for their major to minor needs. For example, they shop online, prepare for exams online, socialize using social media websites, book their travelling tickets online, order their food online, and even seek matrimony alliances online. Even this paper is being prepared using ICT. The communication through the modern devices brings with it some good and bad feelings, symptoms and emotions that warrant further investigation (King, Valença, & Nardi, 2010). The "good" aspects of the communication via these devices are convenience, comfort and availability whereas the "bad" aspects are anxiety and fear of not being able to use the devices, and pathological dependency. The advancement in technology influences academic life of students (Roberts & Pirog, 2013).
Mobile phones have made life really easy. In addition to being a status symbol, they have become a...