Introduction
The smartphones, being a new invention, have evolved to become an inherent part of human being’s life. It combines several sophisticated features and allows humans to keep personal info, financial and health data, pictures, correspondence, and memories in one place. It has developed to become an essential portion of the telecommunications facilities in the modern world. In various parts of the world, smartphones are the only available and reliable phones the exist and allow individuals to maintain communication without interruption of distance and movements. Smartphones combine various computing capabilities such as information retrieval, internet communication, e-commerce, and video, which altogether makes it a necessity for many people. Smartphone addiction is creating problems for so many individuals because being always in social media or smartphone, in general, is taking a toll on personal relationships together with emotional and mental well-being, which then ends up affecting people’s overall health. The popularization of smartphones all over the world triggered the need to research about the effects caused by smartphone addiction on human relationships. Hence, the paper discusses the positive impacts of smartphones on human relationships. Then, to a large extent, it discusses the negative impact of smartphone addiction on human relationships.
Positive Effects of Smartphone on Human Relationships
The existence of smartphones in the current world has some positive impacts on human relationships. Smartphones enable couples to connect in long-distance relationships. Long-distance relationships are considered to be the most challenging type of relationship, as the couples go months before they get to see each other. In the meantime, smartphones enable them to connect through calling and texting with several apps like Instagram and Snapchat (Wang et al. 708). Some apps are designed specifically for couples, and they can utilize them in talking and sharing their photos. Through this, smartphones make being far from partners to become more bearable than earlier when smartphones were not available.
Smartphones assist in remembering events and dates. Previously, individuals used to write down dates and times for activities, and they hope to remember them. Still, nowadays, with the presence of smartphones, multiple opportunities have been created, which assist in remembering essential events. For example, email can sync to Apple or Google calendars to remind a user of group activities and date plans (Wang et al. 708). Also, Facebook reminds individuals concerning the birthdays of friends. With smartphones, it is easier just for an overnight to build a social life without writing everything down.
Negative Effects of Smartphone Addiction on Human Relationships
While smartphones can be a very productive tool in the modern world, its compulsive use can interfere with human relationships as it results in more time being spent on the online world and playing games instead of interacting with real people around. Smartphone addiction, also known as the fear of not having a mobile phone, is mostly fueled by internet addiction disorder and internet overuse problems. The compulsion of the addiction is not the result of smartphones. Instead, it is a result of apps, games, and the online world it connects people to others.
Smartphones create virtual relationships and weaken real relationships with humans. Addiction to texting, social media, messaging, and dating apps extends until a point where online or virtual friends become more significant compared to real-life relationships. Sometimes couples can be seen sitting in a restaurant together, but they ignore each other and engage with their smartphones (Hawi and Maya, 1046). Thus, while the internet is the best place to interact with old friends, reconnect with new people, or have a romantic relationship online, such relationships do not substitute real-life relationships healthily. Also, obsessive use of dating apps in smartphones changes individual focus to hookups that take a shorter time instead of creating a long-term relationship.
Humans are drawn to smartphones, even when they take them away from close relationships. According to (Wang et al. 710), evolutionary history is the reason behind closed ties people hold with smartphones at the expense of their relationships. In theory, humans have relied on close relationships with friends and families represented by small networks for survival, and such relationships were based on cooperation and trust, which are built when individuals disclose personal information concerning themselves, and at the same time, they become responsive to others. Such a process is now made easy by smartphones through access to social media and text messaging. The social networks presented by the evolution of smartphones are far-flung and large compared to the networks that existed in society at first. Smartphones create new ways of disclosing information and becoming responsive to fellow humans, which brings unwanted effects on overall human relationships. The essential ingredients of creating intimacy in a relationship, which is responsiveness and attention, are divided by smartphone addiction, which might result in conflicts in relationships. In illustrating evolutionary theory, Chotpitayasunondh and Karen (12), stated that: The pull or draw of smartphone addiction is connected to the brain’s old modules, which were essential to the survival of humans. The central modules are responsiveness and self-disclosure in the context of small networking, which involved face-to-face, and the two, responsiveness and self-disclosure behaviors, are being always cued by the social networks in smartphones. People are now becoming less responsive in their relationships. Parents scroll through Facebook without hearing to their children who are telling them a story.
Smartphone addiction damages relationships, be it with family members, partners, or any other loved one. Most partners complain that they are replaced with the blue-white screens, on a sofa while watching a TV, across a table in a restaurant, or bed. Partners mostly feel neglected when their partners are immersed in a smartphone, even if the partner is listening. It looks like a form of rejection when partners do not focus on each other; instead, they focus on a smartphone (Wang et al. 710). The negativity is a result of the humans being social animals who are sensitive, specifically when it involves feelings. In relationships, eye contact is considered to be the friendliest form of contact. Yet smartphones give humans written and verbal ways of connection through social media, which then harms relationships.
Smartphone addiction is harmful to love life through its contribution to technology interference, which hampers personal social interactions. The technological interference created by smartphones to human relationships is not because of the distracting nature of smartphones, but because smartphones are fulfilling an evolutionary need in the world. Smartphones make people feel a sense of closeness with various people and not just their real-life and close friends, family members, and partners as it diverts the attention of people from face-face interactions with those they relate together. According to Kim et al. (637), the distraction fueled by smartphones affects intimate relationships negatively. When an individual in-home checks work emails on a smartphone, it harms the satisfaction and job performance of the spouse.
A typical person looks at her or his smartphone about 150 times every day or once every six and a half minutes. The frequent checks interrupt the quality of time and conversation with a relationship partner causing severe outcomes for a relationship (Kim et al., 639). The effect is high, especially for college-aged adults, as it affects the health of their relationships. Smartphones result in higher dependency on them by young couples, which then translates to higher uncertainty in relationships. It is not the actual use of a smartphone that affects relationships. Instead, it is the psychological reliance on them and the need for individuals to connect with their smartphones constantly. Addiction on smartphones makes them more alluring, which romantic partners cannot compete. Smartphone addiction causes phubbing, which shapes casual friendships as individuals who have been phubbed are seen as less attentive and polite (Krasnova et al. 17). In romantic relationships, phubbing is associated with greater feelings of depression and lower marital satisfaction resulting in conflicts over the phone. It has been confirmed through researches that smartphone addiction is the faster killer of romance as it sabotages attachment with a loved one (Chotpitayasunondh and Karen, 14). Addicted individuals are less specific concerning the nature of their partnership with others, whereas those who feel their partners are addicted to smartphones are less satisfied in their romantic relationships. More so, smartphone addiction results in loneliness. This happens when the smartphone is being utilized to relieve loneliness feelings in social interactions. It leads to moving away from human relationships by moving away from individuals who are around (Golem, 5). It denies people interactions that are face to face and which can assist in connecting with others in a meaningful way.
Families today are very busy with their smartphones, and the time spent on phones represents a heavy price to pay. The cost comes from the fact that relationships are the reason people are happy. The behavior of being addicted to smartphones makes those in relationships feel bad, resulting in depression and unhappiness. Smartphone addiction takes away family time the same with homework and busy work schedules leading in less time left to spend with kids and spouse.
Conclusion
The outcomes of smartphones have been effective in the communication and facilitation of long-distance connections through social media platforms and the internet. Couples can share their daily lives even if they live long-distance from each other. It can interact with friends and new people through social media. But smartphone addiction has created a lot of problems in human relationships as it ruins most of them. Its addiction has diverted the attention of parents on their children and also the attention of couples from the significant other. Smartphones addiction takes a lot of time that could be utilized to interact with relationship partners. The technological interference created by smartphones to human relationships is not because of the distracting nature of smartphones, but because smartphones are fulfilling an evolutionary need in the world. Smartphones make people feel a sense of closeness with various people and not just their real-life and close friends, family members, and partners as it diverts the attention of people from face-face interactions with those they relate together.
