Smartphone use could harm your relationship, study finds

As smartphones have become an integral part of the daily routine, their excessive use is harming the relationship of married couples in India, a study by smart device maker Vivo said on Monday.

The “Switch Off” study conducted with Cybermedia Research on “Smartphones and their impact on human relationships 2022” found that 67% of people admitted to being on their phone even when spending time with their spouse. However, 89% of respondents said they spent less time than possible engaging in relaxed conversation with their spouse.

The results also show that smartphone users agree that in-person engagements are more relaxing and they spend less time doing the same.

“Eighty-four percent of respondents want to spend more time with their spouse. People accept problems and are willing to change. Eighty-eight percent of respondents agreed that the increased use of smartphones harms their relationship with their spouse,” according to the study. said.

The study found that 90% of people would like to spend more free time having meaningful conversations with their spouse.

According to the results, on average, 4.7 hours are spent on a smartphone per day by respondents and this is similar regardless of gender. In addition, 73% of respondents accept that their spouse complained about their excess on the phone instead of spending time with them.

“The study reveals that 70% of people are irritated when their spouse asks for something while they are immersed in their smartphone. According to the study, 66% of people believe that excessive use of smartphones has weakened their relationship with their spouse,” the study said.

The study was conducted based on a survey of 1,000 consumers in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune.

“The importance of a smartphone in today’s life is undisputed, but overuse is still an area users need to be careful of. As a responsible brand, we aim to highlight the importance of moving from time with our loved ones because that is the true meaning of free time,” said Yogendra Sriramula, Head of Brand Strategy at Vivo India.

It revealed that 69% of respondents sometimes feel distracted by their smartphone or not attentive enough to their spouse and 68% of partners felt guilty at some point for being distracted by their phone while spending time time with their spouse.

The research report indicates that for 90% of respondents, the smartphone is the preferred way to relax. On average, each smartphone user has an hour and a half of free time per day. Most of them like to spend their free time with family. However, they carry around their smartphone while spending time with family.

According to the study, the average time spent on transactional conversation and relaxed chat is nearly the same at almost two hours.

“89% of people feel the urge to use their smartphone whenever they have free time. The study reveals that 88% of respondents spend their free time on the smartphone, which has become part of their behavior.” , says the study.

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