Lifestyle

Your Dependency On This One Thing Could Be Destroying Your Relationship

by Leigh Weingus
Shutterstock

Don't think much of mindlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed while hanging out with your SO? Well, maybe it's time to start.

According to a study recently published in Psychology of Popular Media Culture, the more time you spend with your smartphone, the less satisfied you probably are with your relationship.

For the study, 170 college students who were in relationships answered questions about their habits surrounding their smartphones, including how dependent they felt on their smartphones and how they felt about spending a day without their smartphones.

The students also answered questions about how dependent they thought their partners were on their smartphones.

Here's what the study concluded: Although it didn't seem to matter how much participants or their partners actually used their smartphones, their feelings toward their smartphones did.

Yep, people get jealous of their partners' relationships with their smartphones.

Also, people who were more dependent on their smartphones felt less certainty in their relationships, and participants who felt their partners were too dependent on their smartphones reported being less satisfied in their relationships.

While this doesn't exactly come as a surprise -- almost 20 percent of young Americans are actually on their phones during sex -- we all shouldn't shrug this relationship-killer off.

On top of improving your love life, putting your smartphone down will also reduce your stress, help you sleep and improve your posture.

So, do yourself and your SO a favor and put that phone in airplane mode today.

Citations: How Your Smartphone is Ruining Your Relationship (TIME), Nearly 20 Percent Of Young Adults Use Their Smartphones During Sex: Survey (Huffington Post)