Don’t Let Your Smartphone Wreck Your Love Life
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iStock/Thinkstock(UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.) — Do you get the feeling sometimes that your real significant other is your smartphone?
You’re probably not alone, according to a poll by Brandon McDaniel of The Pennsylvania State University and Sarah Coyne of Brigham Young University in Utah.
The researchers surveyed 143 women in committed relationships and found out somewhat distressingly that almost three quarters believe that their phones are coming between them and their partners.
It’s what McDaniel and Coyne call “technoference,” which also happens to be a two-way street.
For instance, about a third of respondents complained that their boyfriends looked at their smartphones during a conversation with one in four saying that their partner has also texted while they were talking.
Some of the long-term downsides of “technoference,” the researchers say, includes poor relationship quality, lower life satisfaction and even depression.
McDaniel and Coyne suggest that if people are serious about their relationships, they’ll mute their phones and even better still, occasionally leave them at home.
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