One in three respondents and one in two young people, aged between 18 and 29, feel uncomfortable talking on the phone. This is according to a Sifo survey conducted on behalf of a Swedish telephone company.

The young people that SVT talks to at Mälardalen University are not used to answering when an unknown number calls them. Instead, they have different strategies for checking out who it is. Several also feel anxious about calling, if it is an unknown person who answers.

If the discomfort causes problems in everyday life, it is called telephone fear, something that is well known in research and can be cured.

In the clip: SVT has taken the phone temperature of some young people – that's how it feels when we call.

3 questions about: Phone fear – why it is increasing

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Listen to sociologist Jonas Stier at MDU answer three questions about telephone fear. Photo: Tomasz Swiesciak/SVT