I’m not sure if many of you reading this will know what phubbing means, but I’m pretty sure that most of you will be guilty of it – and it could be ruining your relationships.

Images VIA

Don’t feel so bad about it though, it’s something you can’t really avoid in this day and age. ‘Phubbing’ is a mixture of the terms ‘phone’ and ‘snubbing’ and refers to when someone neglects their significant other – or whoever they’re with really – in order to mess around with their phone. Whether that’s catching up on the group chat or just checking the news is anyone’s guess.

Anyway, here’s what the study had to say about how phubbing affected relationships:

The phenomenon of phubbing, which hits individuals’ social interactions, is an important risk factor for romantic relationships.

In other words, partners’ being too busy with their smartphones during their romantic relationships harms relationship satisfaction and perceived romantic relationship quality.

The results… indicate that partner phubbing had a significant indirect effect on life satisfaction through perceived romantic relationship quality and relationship satisfaction.

These results reveal that relationship satisfaction and perceived romantic relationship quality decrease in individuals who are exposed to partner phubbing behaviors, and that decreased relationship satisfaction and romantic relationship quality harm life satisfaction.

Lol I mean that’s hardly rocket science is it? I suppose it is useful to have some solid data sets that confirm this fairly obvious theory though. At least I assume that we have some data as I haven’t actually read the study, but I presume that would be the whole point of commissioning a study? Some people get paid to research the dumbest things.