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MORE AND MORE MOBILE GADGETS MEAN YOU CAN GET A HIT ON THE GO.....

As gadgets play an increasingly large role in our lives, many people are finding the lure of technology dificult to resist - and some have found gadgets taking over their lives completely. The fact that we're always connected is contributing to addictive behaviour, and it's aided enormously by the mobile hardware that we carry with us everywhere nowadays. BlackBerry's, pagers, handheld games consoles, iPods, media players - any trip on public transport reveals the extent to which we rely on gadgets to get by on a day-to day basis. A survey conducted in 2008 by AOL and opinion Research found that an astonishing one in five Americans use mobile email device. Of these owners, 60 per cent us ethe gadgets in bed, while 40 per cent keep it within earshot during the night so they can wake and replay instantly. Nomophobia is the name given to the fear of being out of mobilephone contact. In 2008 the Post commissioned a survey into the problem. It found that more than half of us experience anxiety of separated from our mobile phones, with most respondents citing contact with friends and family as the reason for their fears. The stress levels were judged to be on par with a day or a trip to the dentist.