Johannesburg: If you're guilty of spending too much time on your cellphone, then you may want to change your ways soon as a recent survey confirms that cellphones are capable of ruining your romantic relationships.
The Baylor University researchers surveyed more than 450 American adults to learn the relational effects of "Pphubbing" or "partner phone snubbing." That's when people use or get distracted by cellphones while in their partner's company, Channel 24 reported.
Co-author James Roberts said that they found that when someone perceived that their partner phubbed them, this created conflict and led to lower levels of reported relationship satisfaction, adding that these lower levels of relationship satisfaction, in turn, led to lower levels of life satisfaction and, ultimately, higher levels of depression.
More than 46 percent of survey respondents said they had been phubbed by their romantic partner; nearly 23 percent said phubbing triggered conflict in their relationships; and nearly 37 percent said they felt depressed at least some of the time. Only 32 percent of respondents said they were very satisfied with their relationship.
The study will be published the journal Computers in Human Behaviour.
