Are you guilty of phubbing your partner?

1 months ago

Struggle to keep your hands and eyes off your smartphone or tablet when you’re with others? Then chances are you could be guilty of phubbing.

It’s the new word to describe how people can often be fixated on their device to the detriment of being sociable and involved in the real world. Basically, you ignore everyone else while you scroll and tap through the entertainment at your fingers tips.

Some people are rather good at it already.

And it’s not just limited to your significant other.

And people have taken action to stop it from interrupting family life…

The word – a merger of phone and snubbing – has been around since 2012, but has grown in stature since it was used in a research paper published in Computers In Human Behaviour from researchers at Baylor University in Texas.

James A Roberts and Meredith David conducted two separate surveys for the study: My life has become a major distraction from my cell phone: Partner phubbing and relationship satisfaction among romantic partners.

They surveyed a total of 453 adults in the US to learn the relational effects of “Pphubbing” – the extra P stands for for “partner phone snubbing” – the extent to which people use or are distracted by their mobiles while in the company of their relationship partners.

“What we discovered was that when someone perceived that their partner phubbed them, this created conflict and led to lower levels of reported relationship satisfaction,” Roberts said. “These lower levels of relationship satisfaction, in turn, led to lower levels of life satisfaction and, ultimately, higher levels of depression.”

David said: “In everyday interactions with significant others, people often assume that momentary distractions by their cell phones are not a big deal.

“However, 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.

“Specifically, momentary distractions by one’s cellphone during time spent with a significant other likely lowers the significant other’s satisfaction with their relationship, and could lead to enhanced feelings of depression and lower well-being of that individual.”

Ultimately such action could be “harmful” to the relationship.