Survey: No phone service among Brits’ biggest fears
October 30, 2023
Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of the Brits say they are frightened of having no phone service, one in ten (11 per cent) are terrified of slow WiFi speeds, and one in five (20 per cent) are now more scared of being ghosted on a dating app than the thought of real ghosts.
A poll of 2,000 British adults by Sky Mobile found that sending a text to the wrong person and making a bad typo on an important email also feature in the top 20 list.
Many Brits even confess to identifying with ‘nomophobia’ – the fear of being stuck without a working phone or connectivity – with 42 per cent of the nation admitting to feeling terror at the thought of not having their phone with them.
Of those surveyed, nearly a quarter (23 per cent) would prefer to hold a tarantula and 14 per cent would rather swim with sharks than be without their phone for a week, and 15 per cent say they would prefer to sleep in a haunted house than lose their 5G signal.
Paul Sweeney, Managing Director, Sky Mobile, said: “We use our phones for everything from keeping on top of life admin to staying connected to our loved ones so it’s no wonder that being left without data and losing phone signal can seem scary to Brits, but with Sky Mobile’s 99 per cent network coverage and spare data rolling into your Sky Piggybank each month, there is nothing to be frightened of this Halloween.”
While common fears like heights (38 per cent), spiders (31 per cent) and roller coasters (24 per cent), are still prevalent, the research found that half of modern terrors are tech related.
With one in five (20 per cent) believing the list of modern spooks, including using the wrong emoji and being tagged in an unflattering photo on social media, are scarier than traditional horrors.
The top 20 modern spooks as found by Sky Mobile:
- Being stuck in a lift (37%)
- Missing a flight (35%)
- Dropping your phone and smashing the screen (34%)
- Work being deleted from your computer before you could hit ‘save’ (31%)
- Sending a text to the wrong person (30%)
- Having no phone signal/service (24%)
- Being without your smart phone (22%)
- Making a bad typo on an important email (22%)
- Being next to someone with a cold on the tube (21%)
- Accidentally messaging the wrong group chat (20%)
- Sitting in the middle seat on a plane for a long flight (16%)
- Running out of mobile phone data (14%)
- Social media stalking someone and liking an old post (12%)
- Being stuck somewhere with slow WiFi (11%)
- Being tagged in unflattering photos on Instagram (11%)
Just under half (45 per cent) admit that spending even a day without their phone would be a nightmare, with Brits using their phone for an average of 14 hours per week; with three in 10 (30 per cent) often carrying around a charging cable just in case their phone battery runs out.
Sky Mobile worked with expert psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos to comment on the survey’s findings and offer advice for self-confessed nomophobes this Halloween. Papadopoulos said: “It’s not surprising to me that over half of the fears in the research are tech-related. These fears are a product of how much we rely on our tech and how for many of us it’s key to not only our work but our social lives and identities.”