MUST READ: Couples are having less sex as phones and tablets get in the way of love lives

Ladies and gents, put down your technology and have more sex.

That's the advice from a team of scientists who found people are becoming so enveloped by their phone and tablets that their love lives are being put on the back burner.

So if you are one of those reading this on your smartphone in bed, a glance across the sheets is likely to reveal your partner is engrossed in theirs too.

Continue reading after the cut....


The researchers discovered 70 per cent of women said smartphones were interfering in their romantic relationship.

The study said technology and the screens that consume us are creating 'technoference' in couples.

That ranges from picking up the phone while partners are casually hanging out to checking Facebook while in the middle of an argument.

'You see it everywhere', said Sarah Coyne, psychologist at Brigham Young University and an author of the study.

'Like at a restaurant where couples have their phones, both of them, on the table, right there. I think that is so easy for them to pick it up if it buzzes.'

The study surveyed 143 married or cohabiting heterosexual women and asked them about their phone, TV, computer and tablet habits.

It also asked about how their partner used technology, if there was any conflict about using technology, and about their satisfaction with their relationship and life overall.

The participants said computers were the most interfering technology in their relationship, followed by mobiles.

They also reported that of five scenarios presented to them, the most common interference was seeing a partner pick up his phone during 'couple leisure time', with 62 per cent of women reporting this happened at least once a day.

Relationships expert Alison Bruzek, writing on the NPR website, said 40 per cent of women said their men would get distracted by the TV during a conversation at least once a day, while a third said he would take out his phone in the middle of a conversation or during a meal together.

A quarter said their partner would actually send texts or emails to another person while they were having a face-to-face conversation.

But worse than the intrusions was the way they made the women feel; they found, as you might expect, that conflict over technology was associated with poorer relationships, which in turn were associated with lower life satisfaction.

Michelle Drouin, developmental psychologist at Indiana University and Purdue University, Fort Wayne, said: 'With mobile phone technology emerging on the scene as quickly as it did, we all jumped into computer-mediated interactions without really thinking much about the implications.'

However, this study involved a small group of women, and the researchers acknowledge that these correlations could be due to other factors affecting a person's well-being.

But for those feeling similarly aggravated by smartphone interrupts, the authors say the answer isn't to completely remove technology from the relationship.

'It's not silly for couples to make rules about technology,' said Dr Coyne. 'Just having the discussion about what's OK and what's not when it comes to devices at the dinner table or in the bedroom can help.'

Her own method: 'Put [the phone] out of my reach, like on top of the refrigerator, just so that it releases the temptation.'

The study was published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture.

-DM

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