Cellphones Affect Relationships!
How many people now have cellphones? How many of those people use them on a daily basis? More importantly, how many of those people use their cellphones while in the presence of others? Of friends? Of family? Do our smartphones have an impact on our social lives? Studies done over the last few years suggest that the practice of using one’s phone in the presence of friends and family may be challenging for relationships. People expect partners and friends to be responsive and generally attentive. However, more and more it has become common to text others while interacting with someone different. Moreover, in a study of college students, it was found that “most felt it was unacceptable to text others while talking and hanging out with friends but they did so anyway” (Miller-Ott, et al). Has what it means to be attentive simply been redefined by the growing use of cellphones in social interaction? In an attempt to constantly be available to everyone in our social lives, multi-communicating has become commonplace and now threatens the quality of our interactions and relationships themselves. In fact, another study demonstrated that “the presence of a cell phone can impact both the quality of interactions and perceptions of one’s relational partner. If either conversational partner had his or her phone in sight, the quality of the conversation decreased and partners reported lower empathic concern” (Miller-Ott, et al). Considering the high usage of cellphones today, it is worrying to see that true social interaction is becoming lost in this age of growing technology.
Works Cited
Miller-Ott, Aimee E. and Lynne Kelly. “A Politeness Theory Analysis of Cell-Phone Usage in the Presence of Friends.” Communication Studies, vol. 68, no. 2, Apr-Jun2017, pp. 190-207. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/10510974.2017.1299024).