Powerfully tecnologized, powerlessly connected: The psychosemiotics of nomophobia

This article studies nomophobia as a modern psychological attachment to smartphone as studied through Mophie advertisement “All Powerless”. Studies have shown that most youngsters suffer nomophobia to a certain degree ranging from mild to severe. In Indonesia, all studied participants are nomophobic with 71.42% suffer moderate nomophobia, 19.04% severe and 9.52% mild. Through the psychosemiotic study of nomophobia in the ad, it is concluded that beyond the surface denotative meaning that the ad is designed to simultaneously invite consumers to buy it and legitimize the disappearance of nomophobia, the deeper ideological meaning has surfaced: people have been psychologically attached too much to the very technology than to other human beings and God, signifying all are powerless in the face of technology.