The rude habit of ignoring a partner while replying to emails or scrolling on a smartphone is so common that behavioral experts even have a term for “phubbing.”
The word shrinking “telephone neglect” has been introduced over the last decade to highlight the damage done to relationships when overuse of technology leads to neglect of real-life communication.
Yet new research shows that technology is becoming part of everyday life, that it no longer has the same power to irritate and provoke strife.
Take a new study on phubbing, which was released this week by Baylor University in Texas.
Researchers surveyed more than 450 people and found that 95% believe that counterfeiting is not personal and believe that phones are often used out of habit.
The team found that although fab is still a “social allergen” that can be irritating, it usually causes distress only when the relationship is already in jeopardy or when a partner does it intentionally to harm.
“Smartphones have become part of the social landscape and their presence is taken for granted,” the researchers concluded.
The technology is not as harmful as previously thought
The new study is one of several recent studies that suggest the technology is not as harmful to health or relationships as experts once feared.
Earlier this week, the University of Cambridge found that reducing television viewing to less than an hour a day could help prevent more than one in 10 cases of coronary heart disease.
But in a curious secondary finding, there is no such correlation for free computer time – which suggests that technology is not as harmful as planting vegetables on the couch to watch boxing kits.
Researchers said people may eat less when surfing the web or are more likely to share activities with other activities.
Similarly, a recent study from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, found that more smartphone use is associated with better parenting.
Bedtime screens do not interfere with sleep
And two recent studies have refuted the common belief that watching screens at bedtime disrupts sleep.
A study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, University of Buffalo, New York, found that sleep quality – measured by the length of time with rapid eye movement and deep sleep – is not affected by media use at bedtime.
Dr Lindsay Hahn, co-author of the study, said: “We found that media use just before bedtime is associated with earlier bedtime and more total bedtime, as long as the duration of use is relatively short and you you do not perform many tasks, such as sending text messages or scrolling on social media at the same time.
“Watching a streaming service or listening to a podcast at bedtime can serve as a passive, soothing activity that improves aspects of your sleep.
Last year, the University of Friborg in Switzerland found that using social media for 30 minutes before bedtime did not affect sleep quality.
Writing in the journal Sleep Medicine, the team came to the conclusion that just the fact that time on social media ate up sleep time is causing problems, not social media itself.
He supported research from Oxford University in 2019, which found a small difference in total sleep time between people who spend eight hours a day in front of the screen, compared to those who abstain to a large extent.
Influence of smartphones on brain function
Advanced research also suggests that computers and smartphones may actually improve brain function.
An intriguing project by Washington-based Sapiens Labs examines the impact of modern life on brain development by comparing people from relatively “premodern” villages in India with those living in urban centers.
The results show that the transition to smartphones and the Internet has a significant impact on a key feature of brain activity called alpha oscillation.
Vibration in the alpha range has been found to be noticeable in brain scans when people are awake with their eyes closed. They seem to be related to memory capacity, attention and how well people perform in cognitive tests.
The Sapiens Labs team found that this feature is largely lacking in adults without secondary education or access to modern technology. And the increased use of smartphones was one of the biggest drivers of increased fluctuations.
“It’s not just the ability to call and communicate verbally with more people that has changed the physiology of the brain, but rather the improved ability to access information that a smartphone provides,” the authors concluded in an article last year in Scientific Reports.
Animal studies have consistently shown that a more stimulating environment leads to structural changes in the brain and cognitive improvements. Now it seems that technology has a similar effect on people.
“Unlike any other organ, the brain develops throughout life not only through the consumption of nutrients, but also through the consumption of external stimuli,” said Dr. Tara Tiagarajan, founder and chief scientist at Sapiens Labs.
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