It is a familiar and unnerving sensation: the false belief that you can hear your mobile phone ringing or vibrating.
Now the phenomenon is so widespread it has an official name: "ringxiety".
People have grown emotionally dependent on their mobiles for feelings of self-worth, claim psychologists.
So when we "hear" an imaginary ring, or think vibrations on a bus are a call, it is the subconscious calculating how popular we are.
The term was coined by David Laramie, from California’s School of Professional Psychology, himself a sufferer.
On hearing notes similar to his phone’s ring, "my brain would fill in the rest", he said.
British psychologists say it is a sign the human brain is struggling to adapt to today’s demands.
British psychologists say it is a sign the human brain is struggling to adapt to today’s demands.
Lancaster Centre for the Study of Media, Technology and Culture professor Michael Hulme said: "You want to feel you are being contacted."
