Trevor Laffan: 9 signs you have nomophobia - the fear of not having a working mobile 

I was watching the Masters Snooker event recently on the television. It’s a tournament for the top 16 players in the world.

It takes place over the course of a week and with only one table being used there is little to distract the players from the business at hand.

Snooker is a passive game played in a quiet atmosphere and even though the Alexandra Palace in London holds about 2,5000 spectators, the silence when players are taking a shot is always respected. The coughing fits are held until there’s a break in the action, and that’s as it should be.

Common sense should tell you to turn off your phone when going to a venue like that, but for those who haven’t any, and there are always a few of them, there are notices everywhere advising them to do just that.

Still, peace at the snooker tournament was regularly disturbed by the ringing and buzzing of mobiles.

It happened numerous times at the Masters, and whenever a phone went off during a game, the referee reminded spectators to put their phones on silent - but even after all that, several more dreaded ringtones were heard.

You’d imagine, after the first disturbance, that everyone else in the place would get the message.

It happens at tennis matches too. Novak Djokovic was about to serve during the Australian Open at a crucial point in his match when someone’s ringtone reverberated throughout the Rod Laver Arena. He pulled up and was annoyed at being knocked out of his rhythm.

It’s hard to blame him, and again the umpire had to issue a reminder to the audience.

It’s not always the fault of spectators though. There was an incident at a tennis tournament in Rome when Djokovic was playing Corentin Moutet. Moutet was about to serve when the umpire called on him to wait. He could hear a phone ringing, and he made an announcement asking people to turn off their phones.

As Moutet was preparing to continue with his serve, the umpire again asked him to wait because he could still hear a phone. At that point Moutet put his hands in the air and ran to his chair as he realised it was his own phone.

He was apologising as he ran and when he got to his phone, he pretended to answer it. Fortunately, everybody, including Djokovic, saw the funny side to it. So, it can happen to anyone.

Causing a nuisance with your mobile at a sporting event isn’t the end of the world, but using one while driving a car could be fatal. It could have serious consequences not only for the user but for their passengers and other road users too.

Despite all the warnings and road safety awareness campaigns, it continues to be a major issue.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) revealed that an “alarming” 8% of motorists were detected using mobile phones while driving last year.

Also, gardaí held a National Day of Action for a 24-hour period last year and in that short period of time a total of 266 drivers were found to be on their phones.

We know it’s dangerous and there is evidence to show that more drivers are doing it, but why is it even necessary to have a phone in your hand while driving when most modern cars have a hands-free facility? But using one of those isn’t risk-free either.

Some experts suggest that even just listening to a phone conversation can be highly distracting and dangerous. That mental distraction could impair your ability to focus on the road and could reduce brain activity related to driving by an alarming 37%. This can lead to errors or delayed reaction times.

That makes sense. Driving requires total concentration and anything that distracts us from that isn’t good.

But maybe the issue is more complicated than we think.

We might even need medical intervention to detach ourselves from this piece of technology if we suffer from nomophobia.

According to Verywellmind.com, the term nomophobia was coined fairly recently to describe the fear of being without your phone. This includes not just losing, forgetting, or breaking your phone, but also being outside of mobile phone contact.

Dependence on the mobile is a growing concern. When people lose their phone, when their mobile runs out of battery, or when they are in an area with no cellular coverage, it can lead to feelings of stress and anxiety or even feelings of fear or panic.

The fear of missing out on something is perhaps what leads so many people to report that they would respond to a call or text even if they are in the middle of something else.

A study revealed that people were often willing to interrupt life activities in order to respond to a call. I presume that includes sports fans too. Listed below are nine signs that are commonly identified as related to this fear, and I’d be surprised if most of us don’t tick at least some of these boxes:

• The inability to turn off your phone
• Constantly checking your phone for missed messages, emails, or calls
• Charging your battery even when your phone is almost fully charged
• Taking your phone with you everywhere you go, even into the bathroom
• Repeatedly checking to make sure that you have your phone
• Fear of being without wifi or being able to connect to a cellular data network
• Worrying about negative things happening and not being able to call for help
• Stress over being disconnected from one’s online presence or identity
• Skipping activities or planned events in order to spend time on the mobile device

So, maybe mobile phone addiction is a real thing after all, which is bad news for the RSA, An Garda Síochána and sports officials everywhere.