Can Phone Habits Ruin Your Relationship?

Mobile phones can be found in the pocket, purse or hand of most individuals today. Throw in the advancement of smartphones, and our constant need for entertainment, information and connection is filled through one small device.

The problem is that some people become so obsessed or dependent on their phones that it ends up negatively affecting their relationships with their spouses or significant others.

Phones cause distraction.

If your mobile phone is constantly glued to your hand, it will distract you from having a relationship with your significant other. Rather than spending time with your loved one, you are texting friends, scouring the Internet, playing games, watching YouTube videos or playing around on social networking sites. If you’re constantly glued to your phone, you will not be paying attention to the real world around you.

When you are constantly enamored with your phone, it ruins your relationship because you don’t communicate with your significant other. Instead of having a conversation, you’re posting comments on Facebook. If you go out on a date, you spend more time checking your phone than you do being with your loved one. If you stop talking to each other, your relationship isn’t going to last. Great relationships are built on even greater communication—and no, texting doesn’t count.

Constant phone use could cause suspicion.

If you are constantly on your phone, it could cause your significant other to start thinking that you’re having an affair. The constant texting or social media messaging could put the thought into their head that you are having a virtual relationship with someone else. Once they’ve built up this idea, it is hard for them to let it go, even if they don’t have proof. The more time you spend on your phone, the more the idea will flow through their mind. If it builds up enough, it could cause them to finally reach a breaking point and leave.

Phones cause fights.

If you’re constantly distracted by your phone, you will notice that you and your significant other start fighting more. They’ll claim you don’t pay attention to them, and you’ll claim that they’re wrong.

 If they start being suspicious of your habits, they may accuse you of having an affair. This opens a whole new array of trust issues with each other that may have never existed until now.

The solution to the problem.

Mobile phones are a way to communicate with others, but they shouldn’t be the reason you lose your significant other. Put their needs first, and make sure that you are still spending quality time together without distraction. If you constantly choose to play with your phone instead of spend time with your significant other, it will make them feel as if spending time with them is no longer good enough. It will wear at your relationship until finally your relationship disappears.

If you want to keep your relationship lasting, put the phone away. The Internet, the games and the social networks will still be there at another date, but if you keep putting your phone in front of your significant other, they won’t be. Make a rule that once you get home after work, mobile phones get left in another room so that you two can focus on each other. Never bring phones to the dinner table, and if you and your significant other go on a date, leave your phone in your purse, pocket or in the car.

Practicing good phone etiquette can be what saves your relationship.

Steven Clark is a writer who works for Tru Phone.  He writes various articles about phones and recently wrote about travel sim cards.