70 percent of women in a recent survey said smartphones were
interfering in their romantic relationship....
The study, published Monday in the journal Psychology of
Popular Media Culture, says technology and the screens that consume us are
creating "technoference" in couples.
That ranges from picking up the phone while partners are
casually hanging out to checking Facebook while in the middle of an argument.
You see it everywhere, says Sarah Coyne, psychologist at
Brigham Young University and an author of the study. Like at a restaurant where
couples have their phones, "both of them, on the table, right there. I
think that is so easy for them to pick it up if it buzzes."
The study surveyed 143 married or cohabiting heterosexual
women and asked them about their phone, TV, computer and tablet habits. It also
asked about how their partner used technology, if there was any conflict about
using technology, and about their satisfaction with their relationship and life
overall.
They also reported that of five scenarios presented to them,
the most common interference was seeing a partner pick up his phone during
"couple leisure time," with 62 percent of women reporting this
happened at least once a day.
Forty percent of women said their men would get distracted
by the TV during a conversation at least once a day, while a third said he
would take out his phone in the middle of a conversation or during a meal
together. A quarter said their partner would actually send texts or emails to
another person while they were having a face-to-face conversation.
But worse than the intrusions was the way they made the
women feel; they found, as you might expect, that conflict over technology was
associated with poorer relationships, which in turn were associated with lower
life satisfaction.
npr
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