My momma always used to say “No phones at the dinner table” which was relatable because we did not have a smartphone invasion back then. She also said, “Gadgets ruin relationships.” She was so right. We did not photograph the dishes cooked for dinner cause we were too busy gobbling them up.
Dinner was a time for family discussions – why the potatoes were not boiled enough, how I couldn’t be more like my sister and heated arguments about the left-wing government – stuff like that. Life was simpler there. People actually looked at people’s faces and enjoyed the little things in life.
Gadgets sure are fun – everything is always a click away. Even dating sites are a click away, meeting people, hooking up, getting dumped is easier than ever. Teenagers are growing up “feeling sad” at home on Facebook with 25 other 15-year-old kids who “share” their feeling.
If someone has got a new dog, we know about it. If a couple has a breakup, we know about it and send a sad reaction to it. Smartphones are smarter than people and living in an age where we are this close to mass-distributing personal intelligence is sure fun.
Related Reading: Here’s How Not To Let Your Gadgets Pull You And Your Partner Apart
How Gadgets Are Affecting Human Relationships?
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Every technological advancement has its pros and cons. While we have so much information at our fingertips and can use the smartphone as our office, being addicted to the phone is a syndrome that most of us are suffering from. Technology and relationships articles say that smartphones can bring people closer as well.
On the contrary statistics on technology ruining relationships show that “technoference” or technological interference is hurting relationships. A study conducted on 143 women in married and cohabiting relationships found that technology has a negative impact on relationships.
About 70 % of the women said that technology interfered in their relationship with their partner at least sometimes or often, and about a quarter said their partners actively texted others during the couple’s face-to-face conversations.
The same study found out that women who reported more technoference in their couple relationship also reported more conflict over technology use, lower relationship satisfaction, more depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction.
7 Ways Gadgets Ruin Relationships
How do gadgets ruin relationships? Gadgets have a sneaky way of creeping into your life and occupying space in it without you even realising it.
You wake up in the morning and reach for your Smartphone and don’t wish your partner, or kiss them awake anymore. That’s how far-reaching the influence of your phone is on you. We tell you how cell phones are ruining relationships.
1. Too much use of gadgets
With gadgets, communication is 24*7. But the constant obsession with gadgets, smartphones, social media updates is doing more damage than good.
There are signs that too much gadget use is hurting your relationship. You might not be realising that but in your obsession with your gadget, you are moving away from your partner.
2. You suffer from Smartphone separation syndrome
If you go out with your partner but somehow forget your phone at home, what you encounter is a sort of withdrawal syndrome- the phantom vibrations in your pocket, having to look at other people instead of your phone screen and the nagging feeling that you are missing a lot of social media updates.
This concoction of emotions prevents you from having a good time with your partner. No matter how much you deny that is not how it will go down, leave your phone at home for a few hours and see how twitchy, irritable and crazy you feel without a phone. This is how gadgets ruin relationships.
3. Social updates become way too important
Did you even have a vacation if you haven’t given hourly Instagram stories? So instead of lying around on the beach, you have taken selfies from all possible angles and spent countless hours editing them, only to realise it was time for you to return.
No romance on the beach, no walking along the shore, no keeping your phone on silent- the vacation just flew by doing the same things you have been doing when you were not on a vacation. Technology and relationships are deeply interconnected these days.
4. You spend time together with eyes glued to the phone screen
It is the same old fun every day. If you need a place to eat, you Zomato it, if you are too lazy to get off the couch, you order in. There are gadgets for everything. What happened to the classic walk, hand-in-hand to the little shack, while it’s pouring cats and dogs outside? No walking!
You Uber everywhere. Even when you are together with your partner, your conversation revolves around the funny cat video you have seen on Instagram. Your eyes are glued to the screen, your fingers scrolling. If this is a familiar scene for you, behold! Gadgets are successfully ruining the essence of your relationship.
5. Approval from online friends
It’s like your relationship is not official until your 2345 friends know that you are official. Like their validation is so essential to the success of the relationship.
When one partner is media savvy and the other is not, problems might arise. “Why is the need to put up a Facebook status of our relationship?” and the answer we think of is “Oh my God, he does not want anyone to know about us.” This is how technology and relationships are not doing any good for each other.
Related Reading:Â How Do You Give Someone Attention In A Relationship?
6. We hear but never listen
Cellphones are ruining our relationships because we are always toying with one and pay attention to little else. Primarily because we have music blasting through the headphones connected to our phones or we are texting.
So even when we are not without our headphones we barely listen to what people have to say. Because our fingers are moving on the screen and we look at it with every ping. We have forgotten the art of listening because gadgets constantly hinder communication.Â
7. Unrealistic expectations from your partner
This is mirrored after the number of celebrity updates we get used to. If we see one celeb doing something fancy for the lady-love, we expect something along those lines and when the desire isn’t met, we often react badly. This is how gadgets ruin relationships.
Not saying ever one behaves like that but countless, constant updates about love gestures shown to their partner prevent us from imagining a simpler life for ourselves.
Invasion of gadgets in our life can happen in many ways. You can always control the addiction to your smartphones and prevent it from taking over your relationship. It won’t be easy, but it sure is necessary. Good luck!
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The danger is that the gadgets surely set up a new way of relating with one another in which we are continually in touch, but emotionally detached.
We are so lost in our own worlds. We can learn to healthily use these gadgets if we set limits, develop rules and attend to our relationships.
One more way can be to plan to turn the gadgets off completely to focus on each other to spend a quality time and both must agree to it. It’s important actually…