The Addiction that is Killing Your Relationships

Friday, July 07th, 2017

Alcohol or drug addiction may spring to mind when you think of  addictions that could kill off an otherwise happy relationship, but there’s a more common addiction that is causing problems in modern relationships — mobile phone addiction.

A study conducted by dScout last year showed that on average their subjects touched their phone 2,617 times a day and the most frequent (read obsessed) members of the participating group touched their phones more than 5000 times a day. This equates to more than two hours a day for average users and four hours for heavy users.

So what has this got to do with your relationships? Well, our phone addiction has lead to a phenomenon which has become known as ‘phubbing’. For those of you who haven’t heard of this unusual portmanteau, it is the combination of ‘phone’ and ‘snubbing’ and occurs when someone pays more attention to their phone than their companion.

Five ways to to prevent snubbing

  1. Don’t look at your phone on a first date – A first date is your opportunity to show your date what a great person you are. Your phone should be off, or on silent unless you are on-call.
  2. Turn off notifications – When your phone pings it draws your attention to it straight away. Go to your phone’s settings to turn off all app notifications when you are with your significant other.
  3. Don’t show your date photos on your phone – When you pull your phone out of your pocket, or bag, you might just see that someone has got in contact with you and be tempted to read your message.
  4. Set up an answer phone – If your phone goes to answer-machine it stop people from trying to phone you lots of times in a row.
  5. Let your nearest and dearest know that you are going on a date – Hopefully this will stop people from pestering you when you are with them!