We’ve all heard of FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out. It’s a real thing that many of us experience, especially with social media on hand pretty much 24/7 these days. Being able to see the amazing things our friends get up to while we’re stuck at work or visiting grandma for the weekend means we all get a little FOMO every now and again. But it gets worse!

Cellphone repair company, iFix, says they’ve found South Africans also display serious signs of FOBO, or Fear Of Being Offline, as well as PSA, or Phone Separation Anxiety. In a recent study carried out by iFix, the company found that 71% of us can’t leave our houses without our mobile phones, and 77% of us check our phones regularly for no reason whatsoever.

They set up a mobile testing clinic in Cape Town, and while it was clearly all in the name of fun – the sexy nurse outfits might have been a giveaway – the study did reveal some rather disturbing findings. Check out the promo video below:

  • 68% of us look at their phones more than they look at their partners
  • 52% of us spend more than three hours per day on their phones
  • 13% of us spend more than ten hours per day on their phones (but… how?)
  • 54% of us get agitated or annoyed when someone else handles our phone

If you want to see if you’ve got FOBO, iFix has setup a website to test yourself and ironically encourages you to share your results online – talk about fuelling the fire.

fobo

Are you addicted to your phone, or do you exhibit signs of FOBO and PSA? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to share this post as much as possible.

Photography courtesy iFix

 

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