Nomophobia--It's Real

Cell phones.  They seem to be almost unavoidable these days.  A number of people, including your own perch librarian here, have a cell phone in place of a house phone, a.k.a. "the landline."  I will even dare to assert that many belonging to older generations, like my parents, and people living in areas where no service is available are probably among the only people who don't use cell phones nowadays.

And of course, phones aren't just for talking anymore.  You can check the Internet, the weather, your e-mail, your home alarm system...heck, you can do just about anything on your cell phone to make your life easier and more convenient.  This convenience, however, can make us overdependent on the dang techno-gizmo which, in turn, can cause us to have nomophobia.

If you're not familiar with the term, nomophobia is a fear of not having cell phone contact (no mobile phobia--get it?).  People who can't seem to put their cell phones down for 5 minutes or who get the shakes if they're away from their phones for too long may have a case of nomophobia.  Sometimes I wonder if my husband has this because our dinners out have often become a threesome of me, him, and his cell phone (looking back, I'm amazed I never caught a glimpse of his cell phone on our first date).

As I may have mentioned on other occasions, I'm all for technology.  It can often be useful, but it has its time and its place.  Communicating with other people in face-to-face encounters is not the time or place to use your cell phone, as one librarian has attested.  One of the things I love most about being a perch librarian is the opportunity I have to talk with people in person without an electronic mediator.  It's courteous, but it's also human.

So when you come by the perch and approach me (or any other librarian or person for that matter), please do something that may be out of the ordinary.  Put away your phone, look me in the eye, and talk to me.  It may be scary at first, but you can do it.  I promise I won't bite.  And you can pull out your phone as soon as you're done talking with me.

Old-fashionedly yours from the perch.