Is your marriage getting worse? Your smartphone might be to blame, according to a report released by the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) which found that in married homes as evening mobile phone use went up, satisfaction with one’s marriage went down. Increased smartphone use also apparently has a negative affect on parent-child relationships. As a result the group is suggesting that everyone switch off their devices for an hour a night and spend more time with their families.
This was no small study either. The ACWF surveyed 31,344 people, 43 percent of whom researchers found kept playing on their phones during family time. It’s not difficult to see why this would have an effect on people’s satisfaction with their marriage: if a husband pays more attention to his phone than to his wife (or vice versa), how happy is she likely to be?
A Chinese psychologist told the Changjiang Times that in addition to the effects on others when one overuses a phone, getting ‘addicted’ to smartphone use can also lead to irritability and anxiousness when there’s some problem or the device’s battery starts running low.
Of course, the study focused only on Chinese families, but I suspect the lesson is probably applicable to a much broader audience. Smartphones and tablets are wonderful, to be sure, but perhaps we really would be better off shutting them off for at least an hour a day.
(Source: Sina Tech)
Photo by Jens Schott Knudsen
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