#PuneSpeaks: Are Smartphones Killing Your Date?

#Relationships

 

In this fast-paced world, where technology empowers us to stay connected 24/7 and yet somewhere in the midst of all this we remain disconnected in reality…

A recent research threw up this –  teenagers are so engrossed in their smartphones that it’s affecting their relationships. Professor Jean Twenge from San Diego University, in a recently published book says millennials born between 1995 and 2012 are going on fewer dates than their parents’ generation.

According to Professor Jean, teenagers from this group have grown up with social media and smartphones and spend far more time socialising with one another online than they do in person.

With the dawn of the smartphone age has come increased number of cases of loneliness and even depression. Posting selfies far too often is believed to be narcissistic according to leading psychiatrists.. The inability of people to go without a smartphone for a day or even an hour is apparently leading to abrupt shifts in behaviour and emotional stress.

Pune365 spoke to a cross section of Puneites on this subject to check on the actual state of affairs..

“I’d rather stay home with my cell phone than going out with my friends. This is because I am comfortable talking to people through text messages over talking in person,” says Athena Mulick (16).

Manish Sachdev (20), “I don’t like it, when my screen time is interrupted by anyone, be it my friends, or my girlfriend. She knows that from 4 – 6 pm I would be playing my favourite games so she never calls me then. I never check her cell phone even when she is busy on whatsapp sitting right next to me and I expect the same kind of privacy from her. Cell phones are meant to be private these days.”

For Garima Shah (23), it is her prized possession. “I am very possessive about my smartphone. Whenever I am surfing on the internet, I hardly pay attention to my surroundings. It is the best thing to do when your mother takes you out with her friends for dinner. Stare at your phone and avoid answering questions like ‘What will you do after studies?’, ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ or ‘When are you getting married?’. So, smartphones are certainly the best invention for me at least.”

“Staring at a phone is the best way to avoid an awkward silence between you and your partner, says Mahira Ladkat (18). This happened to me when I met a guy for the first time. I didn’t know what to talk, and neither did he, so we ended up checking our social media updates on our cell phones. We were there for two hours, but exchanged nothing beyond our names, phone numbers and our school. Interestingly, we spoke on the phone for an hour, the same night!”

 

 

#All views expressed in this column are those of the individual respondents (names changed to protect privacy) and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to this.

Loveleen Kaur