Half of Brits fear being without a cell phone

More than half of the British population is suffering from 'nomophobia' - the fear of being without a mobile phone - a new study has found.

The anxiety of being unreachable without a cell phone is higher in women than men, according to the study. People are so dependent on their cell phones that they rarely put them out of reach. About a fifth of people check e-mails and messages while in bed, and 42 percent take their devices to the beach. Also Read: New system to help computers learn human language
Out of 1,000 British workers surveyed, slightly more than half said that they feared being "out of mobile phone contact", 'The Times' reported. The study, by the OnePoll company, found that women were 17 percent more likely than men to suffer from nomophobia - an abbreviation of "no-mobile-phone phobia".
The research found that 28 percent of people look at their work e-mails while away from home, with men more likely to check their e-mails than women. A quarter of people even consult their phones during a date - with women more likely to do so than men.
However, only 50 percent people secured their devices with a password. "It's pretty clear that we're a society totally reliant on our phones, not only for personal use, but business use too," said Fred Touchette, senior security analyst at AppRiver, the company that commissioned the study.
"What worries me is that, with so much information stored on them - confidential office documents, contact details, e-mails, photos and bank log-ins - when these devices get lost or stolen and end up in the wrong hands, the information is so easily exploited," he said.