How Smartphone Could Be Ruining Your Relationship

Topic One: Are We “Connected, But Alone”?

      How smartphone could be ruining your relationship

Dear Sandy,

How are you? Recently, I have heard that you pissed Jason off because you had used smartphone non-stop to play games and dispensed with him when he hanging out with you. Jason told me that he hate people use smartphone when they talk to each other. It seems he cannot earn other’s respect. I think you should try to cultivate self-awareness of using smartphone in order to improve your relationship with significant others in your life. If you get used to using smartphone in the pursuit of pleasure, it will ruin your whole life.

Smartphone get in the way of your relationships. It makes you to devote your attention to the present moment. It is gratifying to use smartphone because it can replace to face-to-face communication. As a result, you might lose many moments that are unique and wonderful. For example, you might lose your friendship. Jason told me that he was look forward to seeing you and told you about his experiences of UK study tour. But you had using smartphone non-stop to play games while had connecting to Facebook and so on. He was upset and angry because you just gave him the cold shoulder (M). It seems you were not interested in such trifle at all and ignore him. Therefore, he do not want to talk to you anymore. It is a negative impact that you non-stop to use smartphone.

Also, using smartphone in the wrong way might affect the relationship among couple. Last week, your boyfriend told me that you did not see each other for long time. He complained that you talk more about your relationship on Facebook than you do face-to-face communication with him. He was wondering you and your smartphone actually in a relationship with. To maintain a relationship it needs to be based on constant give and take real communication, where we think about someone else at least as much as we think about ourselves. In fact, your smartphone has ruined this balance.

It cannot be denied that using smartphone has some positive impacts to your relationship. Texting, sending email, posting through smartphone all of these things let you present the self as you want to be. You can get to edit, get to delete. It is easier to control your expressions. You can sharing feelings without embarrassment of emotions and do not need to take place in real time. In truth, these ways are virtual communities. You are just having a problem separating yourself from your smartphone. It leads to more social isolation. When smartphone becoming more central to your live, it can turn you into selfish, you are only worried how many likes on your Facebook photo that you have received, You place too much emphasis on your digital live, and you lose the connections to the real world and fail to see or interact with people you do know.