Your Mental Health: Is Phubbing A Problem For You?

More than just snubbing others, I wonder if we "Phub" other activities in the name of procrastination.

Actually, this couple isn’t phubbing. For now…

Good morning!

When the idea for today’s article came across my phone screen (oh, the irony), I laughed because the word didn’t look real. And actually, it isn’t quite real. “Phubbing” is a portmanteau of “phone snubbing,” the act of ignoring something or someone in favor of your phone. Sound like you?

Yeah, me too, sometimes.

Let’s be transparent. This happens more than most of us would like to admit, and we are doing our relationships with ourselves and others a disservice. In the past, I’ve talked about healthy distractions and ways to keep ourselves busy as a means of positive dopamine generation. But phubbing is the type of distraction that’s counterproductive and hurtful to our mental health in more ways than one.

You probably don’t need me to prove it, but I will anyway. Why, you ask? Because phubbing isn’t just a word some TikTok influencer invented. It’s a real, scientifically studied thing with a lot of evidence showing its drawbacks. I hope that if I offer you some of that evidence, you might be ever-so-slightly compelled to put down the dopamine machine in your hand for a few more minutes a day.

A bit of the most recent and relevant research on Phubbing, explained.

Okay, well, the first few papers I’m about to cite don’t explicitly use the word “Phubbing,” but they allude to it. Of some importance is that nearly all of these papers were published during or after 2020, when many of us became (even more) attached to our phones, and some didn’t look back.

• 2017 - Smartphone-mediated communication vs. face-to-face interaction: Two routes to social support and problematic use of smartphone. This study looked at two ways to alleviate loneliness, which, surprisingly, according to the survey, is increasing more among young adults than among the elderly. I mean, look who has all the smartphones… …This study found that the more someone used their smartphone in social settings, the less satisfied they were with their relationships and the more likely they were to experience conflict with others. Aside from conflict, many even avoided face-to-face interaction altogether, which compounded loneliness, which led to more problematic phone use…and, well, you can probably guess how it spirals from there. TL;DR: Phone use in social settings where you can interact with real people = increased perception of loneliness. What a paradox.

• 2017 - Depression, anxiety, and smartphone addiction in university students- A cross-sectional study. Whereas the previous study made the case for more adults (aged 31-40) becoming lonelier, this study analyzed college students and found that the more students used their smartphones, the more likely they were to experience symptoms of sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression. This tracks — college students are typically overwhelmed with coursework and might be phubbing off assignments while trying to keep up with what should be the most social time of their lives. Juggling the influx of new friends, responsibilities (living on your own is kind of hard), and schoolwork will inevitably lead to a hierarchy of priorities, with the smartphone uprooting homework. Which leads to another vicious spiral — late assignments, failed classes, depression, and the like. TL;DR: Phubbing is not just a social thing. It can be the snubbing of a more critical task, which prolonging will have negative consequences.

• 2022 - Feeling Ostracized by Others' Smartphone Use: The Effect of Phubbing on Fundamental Needs, Mood, and Trust. This study brought relationships with partners into the fold and discussed whether or not interpersonal relationships were damaged by phubbing (Gentlemen whose partners remember everything — AKA all of you — listen closely). When recounting instances of phubbing, the phubbed partner felt more strongly that their needs didn’t matter. It negatively affected their mood towards their partner and significantly damaged trust. This one, having been published recently, tells me phubbing is an epidemic. So much so that I’m going to stop here, because Pubmed has 82 more post-2020 articles if you’re that much more curious about it, and I don’t have time to write all of that. TL;DR: If you are in the same room as your significant other, pay more attention to them than your phone.