Some people love their mobile phones. Some people are indifferent to them. Some people don’t like to use them, but consider them a necessary evil. And then there are those people who are actually afraid of them. It’s possible to develop a major phobia (characterized by anxiety, stress and physical ailments) for just about anything. People with the following fifteen phobias may experience those symptoms in some relation to mobile phone use.
Acousticophobia – Fear of sound. People who suffer from this rather rare phobia are uncharacteristically afraid of noise. Noises make them feel stressed out, anxious and fearful. They may even have panic attacks caused by noise. Imagine how much worse this problem is now that mobile phones are everywhere in public, constantly ringing and buzzing and jolting people with their sounds!
Ankylophobia – Fear of immobility of a joint. This is a very specific medical fear that some people have. They become terrifed that they are going to lose their ability to function properly due to joint damage. People with this fear might have decided to stop using their phones last year when it came out in the news that many mobile phone users were developing a joint condition called Cell Phone Elbow.
Bacteriophobia – Fear of bacteria. You might not know this but your mobile phone is one of the dirtiest items that you come into contact with every day. It’s filled with bacteria. It’s filthy. And people with bacteriophobia simply can’t get over that fact long enough to regularly use a mobile phone.
Carcinophobia – Fear of cancer. Some people are unreasonably frightened about the idea of getting cancer. Every little physical ailment that they experience (such as normal headaches) is something that they take as a sign that they probably have cancer and will die from it. Imagine trying to use a mobile phone when you have this condition considering that many people still insist that these devices are cancer-causing.
Cyberphobia, Logizomechanophobia – Fear of computers, working on a computer or technology. This general fear of technology was bad enough for people who suffer from this condition before mobile phones became so complex. Now that cell phones are basically miniature computers, the problem is much worse.
Decidophobia – Fear of making decisions. People who have this problem are scared of making decisions. There are a lot of decisions to be made with mobile phones from getting the right handset to choosing the right plan. The trick for people with this condition is to let someone they perceive to be an expert, choose their cell phone for them.
Lalophobia- Fear of speaking. Luckily this is a rare condition but as you can imagine it wouldn’t be too likely that someone suffering from it would be interested in using a cell phone.
Melanophobia- Fear of the color black. Some people associate the colour black with death and fear it deeply because of this. It’s easy enough to find a handset that is a different colour but try to find one that doesn’t have any black on it at all (on the screen on the keys); it’s nearly impossible.
Melophobia- Fear or hatred of music. It must be tough for people with this phobia to deal with the fact that ringtones all around them these days are playing music for them to hear.
Microphobia- Fear of small things. This condition is similar to bacteriophobia. In this case, the person is afraid of germs and other invisible-to-the-eye objects. Since mobile phones are known to carry lots of them, they may develop a fear of using the phone.
Neophobia- Fear of anything new. With cell phone handsets and technology changing every single day it must be really tough to deal with phones as a neophobic person.
Nomophobia – Fear of being out of range of your mobile phone. This is a term that was coined not that long ago (and is short for “no mobile phone fear”). It refers to those people who become extremely upset when their phone is lost, their phone battery starts to die or for some other reason they are not going to be able to use their phones. A lot of people joke about this condition but for people who actually feel intense anxiety in these situations it’s certainly no joke.
Pantophobia- Fear of everything; Polyphobia- Fear of many things. Some people have a sort of generalized fear which might include a fear of mobile phone use or mobile phone loss. These people are afraid of lots of things and the phone gets lumped in there for some of them.
Technophobia- Fear of technology. If you’re afraid of technology in general then you’re obviously also going to be afraid of the cutting-edge technology used to create mobile phones today.
Telephobia (aka Phone Phobia) – Fear of speaking on the phone. Have you ever felt mild social anxiety about using the phone? Most of us have felt it to some degree or another. However, there are people who feel this way to such an extreme degree that they actually get physically ill if they have to use a phone. For these people, it’s the act of talking on the phone that is scary so it doesn’t matter if it’s a landline or a mobile phone. Either way, the fear is present.
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