Gadgets in relationships: Being stuck on smartphones and social media
Technology is playing a big role in our lives nowadays but quickly taking over. Relationships are no longer the same with the Gadgets and Social Media involved causing mistrust. Everyone is affected and there is no straightforward solution to stop or limit the use of gadgets in relationships.
The obsession to stay online in the middle of the night while the other partner is sleeping is also a big problem. The questions which comes to your mind when you find your partner awake with a smartphone in their hands start to grow. Questions like who is he or she talking to or what are they chatting about grow the suspicion that something is obviously up. The suspicion will start to consume you because you have no answers to all your questions.
The problem is how are you going to ask your partner what is he or she doing on the phone in the middle of night. We agree that social media is so addictive and if you don’t draw the line things can get worse. Partners becomes absent emotionally because they are consumed by their smart devices and social media. Imagine trying to make a conversation to someone who is busy watching something on Tiktok during bed time. The person is not necessarily listening to what you are saying because if you ask them about what you were telling them they can’t remember.
It creates frustration in relationships because it starts to feel like the other person is absent even if they are with you but focused on something else. The problems escalate and even happens when you are eating, your partner will be eating with one hand and the other hand scrolling on the phone. It shows that we all need a way to control how we use the gadgets because soon someone will flip the lid about the gadget obsession. Is time to focus on what is acceptable, what to do and what not to do when using the gadgets in relationships.
Things which creates acceptable gadget environment in relationships (Note: Is not for invading someone’s privacy)
- Your Gadget should be accessible to your partner unless you have something to hide – Note that you may see something you can’t handle like someone hitting on your partner in the inbox. Handle it maturely and understand that people get out of line sometimes.
- Do not use your Gadget during bed time, eating time or at time to relax with your partner. You can use it during relax time but for a short period for important calls.
- Sometimes share what you watching or chatting about with your partner – Hiding when chatting can be assumed as cheating when your partner tries to eavesdrop.
- Set acceptable standards which both partners should abide when it comes to using gadgets and social media.
Even with all this tips above, that doesn’t mean you can access other private information of your partner like banking apps without their concern. Is easy to get carried away and access things you shouldn’t, don’t access to avoid serious conflict in the relationship. We should understand that we are already consumed by the gadgets and the only thing to do is to develop good ways of using them. Some of us can’t even spend a day without our gadgets or logging to our social media profiles. The only thing we need to know is that it can damage your relationship irreversibly if misused.
A good lesson is that, never stick your gadgets like a crazy glue.
Also read Happy Women’s Day
About The Author
Tishmorr
IT Support Specialist - Web Developer, SEO and Online Marketing Expert
Yes indeed…tech has introduced revolution into our daily lives both negative and positive but in relationships it has more negative impact and there is nothing we can do about that.
But we have to try minimize the damage because is getting worse….
Agree! 💯
Allowing a partner access to my gadgets is a huge NO. It would be a violation of NDAs and confidentiality with my clients and I could end up without work.
Don’t you have a personal phone which is separate from a work phone? Is better to separate to avoid violations, but still phones are problematic especially if there is no trust.
I don’t see an advantage to carrying two phones around with me 12 hours a day, seven days a week just to separate business and personal use. I think that would be more work.
You can use Second Space if you are using Android Smartphone to separate your profiles.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll look into it. I think having two profiles would be more stressful because I would always be triple checking which profile I’m logged into.
You only need two unique passwords which switch automatically to the right profile as you enter them. Use different wallpapers to easily distinguish between the two profiles.
Thanks for the advice. I think I’m too lazy to be entering my password multiple times a day just to switch accounts back and forth.
And here I am with my gadget at 1 o’clock in the morning 😂
Exactly😀 is a problem…