Is your marriage going downhill? ‘Phubbing’ may be the reason

CHENNAI: Your marriage may be in risk if you regularly tend to ignore or snub your partner while only paying attention to your phone, or "phubbing", according to a study.

The term “phubbing” represents the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by concentrating on one’s phone instead of talking to the person directly.

Phubbing behaviour has become widespread everywhere in today's modern society. While smartphones allow people to connect with others from almost anywhere at any time, there is growing concern that the mobile devices actually detract, rather than complement, social interactions.

“Theoretical explanations also show that phubbing is an important problem for healthy communication. In this study, it was revealed that phubbing behaviour affects marital satisfaction,” said psychologists Suat Kilicarslan and Izzet Parmaksiz from the Nigde Omer Halisdemir University in Turkey.

The researchers sent questionnaires to 712 adult married couples in Turkey. Of these, 347 (48.7 per cent) of the participants were female and 365 (51.3 per cent) were male.

The results, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior showed that phubbing significantly and negatively affected marital satisfaction.

“Basically, phubbing is neglect. Implying that someone/something else is more important than your partner,” Jo Hemmings, a behavioural psychologist wrote in a tweet.

“I’m seeing this a lot, a real deficit of attention is a common complaint and the phone is often involved,” Hilda Burke, psychotherapist, couples counsellor was quoted as saying by Evening Standard.

“It’s really important to practise putting our phone away when we’re with a loved one,” Burke advised. “To put it on silent, switch it off, (or) put it out of sight.”