Are You Guilty of Phubbing?

Carol Posted on November 12 2017

I'm not trying to be "Dear Abby" but I thought you should know....

I had lunch with a friend this week and I got a familiar yet uncomfortable feeling. We were catching up on our summers and I look over at her and she is staring at her phone and scrolling through Pinterest. HELLO????

This is “phubbing,” the act of snubbing someone with your phone. (Yes, it’s a real word, thanks to the 2016 Oxford Dictionary.) And look, no one is innocent. We’re all guilty of phubbing—you, your S.O., even your kids. So here’s everything you need to know about the epidemic. It's bad for your marriage.

Why is phubbing so bad for relationships? Well, according to a study (found via Emma Seppälä’s eye-opening article in The Washington Post), choosing your phone over your partner leads to lower marital satisfaction and more fights. Why? Well, when someone’s attention is elsewhere, we feel unheard, unseen and unimportant. (Insert sad face emoji.)

Now that you know, I hope you will be more cognizant about how your phone use makes others feel—especially the people closest to you. The common denominator that has us all locked to our phones? The desire to feel connected. It’s time to reconnect with the person right in front of you.