Modern consumers are known to be deeply attached to their mobile phones, but the findings of a new study from SecurEnvoy suggest that this sentiment may run deeper than previously thought. In extreme cases, the affection people have for their mobile gadgets might turn into a condition called nomophobia – fear of losing mobile contact.
Apparently, for many people the prospect of losing their mobile phone is more dreadful than the idea of suffering financial losses, the Internet Retailing website reports. More than one in three of those polled are afraid of losing their personal mobile phone and one in five fears the potential loss of a company phone the most. In comparison, a quarter of respondents admit they would suffer the most from losing £50, while 18% would be most bothered by losing their credit cards.
These findings chime in with earlier research from January, which revealed that two in three consumers found the idea of losing their phone scary. In a bid to deal with this fear, 41% of those interviewed said they had two or more phones, so that they could stay connected under all circumstances. Meanwhile, consumers seemed to be taking their phones for granted, as almost half of them did not take any security measures whatsoever.
Andy Kemshall, CTO and co-founder of SecurEnvoy, says that the more diverse mobile phone functionalities become, the more dependent on them consumers are because phones these days offer much more than just conversations and their impact spreads to various aspects of personal and professional life.