If You Ignore Your Partner By Using Your Phone, You Might Be Endangering Your Relationship

We spend so much time with our noses in our phones, that an entire generation of people are developing hunchbacks. It’s a real problem! The world is happening all around us, but we’re more concerned with our Facebook feed or how many likes we got on our picture of eggs. There’s a phenomenon called “phubbing”, which is when you snub someone in real life for your phone. It’s rude as hell, obviously. But now researchers are saying that it can have a detrimental effect on your relationship. They call this new type of snubbing pphubbing, which is phubbing your partner (get it? P+phubbing=pphubbing!).

phone staring GIF by Robin Schulz

Image: Giphy

Researchers at Baylor University say that pphubbing can can damage your romantic relationships, and even lead to depression.

453 adults took part in two surveys during the study. The first survey asked respondents to rate their partner’s pphubbing habits on a scale of 1 – 9. These habits can include checking their phone during a conversation, or checking it during lulls in a conversation. The second survey asked the same respondents about their life and relationship satisfaction, and relationship stability.

The results are pretty upsetting. 46% of participants reported being pphubbed by their partner. 23% reported having conflicts in their relationship stemming from the behavior.

Co-author and professor James A. Roberts, Ph.D says, “These lower levels of relationship satisfaction, in turn, led to lower levels of life satisfaction and, ultimately, higher levels of depression.” Additionally, researchers found that people who were already experiencing dissatisfaction in their relationship were more likely to be bothered by the behavior than those in stable relationships.

On a day-to-day basis, checking your phone momentarily might not seem like a big deal.

But, according to co-author and assistant professor Meredith David, P.h.D., the ongoing pphubbing can be bad for your love life. David says, “our findings suggest that the more often a couple’s time spent together is interrupted by one individual attending to his/her cellphone, the less likely it is that the other individual is satisfied in the overall relationship.”

So put the phones down, guys! Make eye contact with your boo, and I don’t know, have an actual conversation? It’ll be awkward at first, but I’m sure you can do it!

(Image: iStock/gpointstudio)

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