What communication problems will your love for a smartphone lead to?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Due to the fascination with smartphones, our skills of simple human communication are lost. And the problem is much more serious than it seems.

Many young people do not part with their smartphone for a minute:

• 93% of millennials use their phone in bed;
• 80% go to the restroom with him;
• 43% get it out by stopping at a red light;
• 66% of young people check their phone as soon as they wake up in the morning;
• almost 10% wake up during the night to check messages.

Smartphones keep us connected all the time, distract us with notifications and entertain us when we have nothing to do. Most importantly, they offer a convenient alternative to face-to-face conversation. We can correspond by SMS and e-mail, in instant messengers and social networks. But there is a danger that we are missing important aspects of communication because of this.

What problems are the constant use of a smartphone?

1. Misunderstanding

Correspondence does not convey everything we want to say.

In ordinary conversation, the words we say convey only a small part of the meaning. After all, there is also body language, tone of voice, facial expression.

James Roberts Baylor University professor, author of Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?

By sending an email or posting a tweet, we lose all non-verbal content and send naked text. As a result, there can be a lot of misunderstandings and resentments. And all because the reader does not have the very non-verbal sources of information that would help him to correctly understand the meaning of what was said.

2. Fear of uncomfortable conversation

Sometimes it is appropriate to type a message instead of a short, personal conversation. But more and more people are notifying their friends and relatives about weddings and funerals through social networks and are transferring all important issues into text format. Phones make it easy to drop any potentially uncomfortable conversation. And we are unlearning how to fully communicate.

Some people lack the courage to engage in difficult face-to-face conversations and do not develop those skills.

James Roberts

According to one survey, 40% of young people chose text messaging as their preferred way to communicate with others. 33% of millennials said it was better to communicate with a person face to face.

3. Inability to conduct a conversation and irritation of the interlocutor

Most of us are familiar with fabbing even if we haven't heard the term before. Fabbing is a way of ignoring the interlocutor: when you are talking to a person, and he is buried in a smartphone.

Surely everyone has a friend who, during a conversation, constantly checks the news feed or messages. And this is not only annoying, but also indicates that it is difficult for a person to maintain a conversation.

When some people feel insecure, they immediately look at their smartphone as a lifeline. They don't realize that sometimes awkward pauses and awkward lulls in conversation are things to work on.

James Roberts

89% of Americans say they used the phone during their last social interaction, and 82% admitted that it hurt the conversation. This was stated by MIT professor Sheri Turkle during the promotion of her book Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. In Russia, the situation is not much better.

4. Loss of empathy and joy in communication

In 2012, a study was conducted that compared conversations in pairs of strangers. There was a smartphone on the table next to some of the participants, and a laptop next to others. When asked about interlocutors after the experiment, the phone groups were less positive and felt that their conversations were less meaningful.

The very presence of a telephone undermines the quality of the call.

James Roberts

Other observations have confirmed that the presence of the phone can make us feel less empathy for the other person. We delve less into the conversation, we lose the ability to empathize and care about others. Fabbing has also been shown to have a negative impact on relationship satisfaction.

5. Lack of parental attention

When observing how parents behave while dining with their children, experts have noticed that many barely interact with their children. They gave the child what he asked without looking at him or answering him.

Parents were obsessed with smartphones. They recognized that it is difficult to switch between reading endless news and a child. They felt discomfort when the children took them away from this activity. And as you know, if the parent did not pay due attention to the child in childhood, then in adolescence, the child will speak already.

6. Children do not acquire important social skills

The opposite situation: it is difficult to cope with the child, so the parent gives him an electronic device. He calms down, the conflict is smoothed out, and mom or dad also has less stress. But the question arises: where will children gain social skills and emotional experience if, instead of interacting with their parents, they play with a smartphone?

I suggest that some of the “difficult” children who are at higher risk of behavior or developmental problems are more likely to be given electronic devices.

Jenny Radeski Pediatrician, Child Behavior Expert

Each child has his own needs and his own temperament. And what he learns from personal communication is extremely important. In particular, he must be good at recognizing the very non-verbal signals and emotions that were mentioned at the beginning. Gadgets are not helpers in this.

What to do to prevent the smartphone from supplanting live communication

• Put your smartphone away when you are at the table. A good idea when dining with a company or family: put all your gadgets in one pile and impose a punishment on whoever grabs a smartphone first. For example, if you are in a cafe with friends, let the fined pay for everyone.
• Ignore messages and calls when you are talking to someone in person. Most likely, this is not more important than the conversation you are currently having. In most cases, you can answer later.
• Install an application that will help you track how much time you spend on your smartphone. For example, BreakFree shows you how long and in which applications you have been sitting, analyzes your level of addiction and gives advice in a joking manner. Also in the application, you can configure the disconnection of the Internet and calls at a certain time. And there is a parental control function: by installing BreakFree on a child's smartphone, you can track how attached he is to the gadget.

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By taking action, you will feel that you have more fun with your interactions and that it’s more pleasant for others to do business with you.