Do you check your smartphone regularly when you’re with your partner? If you care about him or her, you might want to stop.
Seventy percent of women say smartphones are interfering with their relationship, according to a new study in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture, and this "technoference" has made technology the worst third-wheel of all.
One woman said her spouse would check Facebook while they were arguing, says study author Sarah Coyne, a psychologist at Brigham Young University, but it could be as simple as a couple using their phones while out at dinner instead of talking.
So what should couples do? Coyne recommends they sit down and have a discussion about when it’s OK to use their phone when around each other – for instance, banning it from the bedroom or the dinner table.
"It's not silly for couples to make rules about technology," she told NPR. "Put [the phone] out of my reach, like on top of the refrigerator, just so that it releases the temptation."
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