Why you feel stressed when away from your smartphone

The sudden feeling of panic or stress when one is not in contact with their smartphone could be related to general feelings of inadequacy and inferiority, finds new research.

People who are more anxious and obsessive-compulsive in their day-to-day lives than other people, feel more stressed about being separated from their phones. The study looking at the behaviour of younger people in Portugal also found that gender has no bearing on whether people will feel this anxiety or not.

The researchers found that the more participants used their smartphone each day, the more stress they reported feeling without their phone.

Publishing the findings in the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports, lead author from the study said, 'there is a difference between normal smartphone use that benefits a person’s life and use that interferes with a person’s life.' The latter is more likely to cause anxiety and feelings of agitation when your phone is low on battery or out of reach.