Are smartphones killing the art of face-to-face conversation?
Smartphones are everywhere now and for many of us they serve as a constant companion. They keep us continually connected, filling gaps in our day, entertaining us, and demanding our attention with a string of notifications. Because they offer a convenient alternative to face-to-face conversations, and at times they butt into our chats directly, there’s a growing realization that they may be killing the art of conversation.
Observation
In Hong Kong, authorities are considering removing seats from subway trains to give commuters “more room to interact with their mobile devices”.
Time Spending
We’re spending more time involved in digital media overall, but less of that time on desktop and laptop computer. Mobile now accounts for about 65% of total digital media consumption. The data showed that people spent on social media in their lifetimes which is equal to 5 years and 4 months.
Problem Statement
I realized that commuters never stop texting while they are walking through the train station which is quite dangerous.
People spent too much time on mobile phones to communicate and maintain their relationships with their friends and family members. Smartphone is becoming our window into the outside world.
Smartphones enable us to avoid direct conversations altogether. We can chat via text messages, or in real-time on social media, but there’s a danger that we’re missing out on some important aspects of communication when we do this.
“In a good conversation, the words we say are only one small part of the meaning that we convey, there’s also body language, tone of voice, facial expression,” Dr. James Roberts, Professor of Marketing at Baylor University and author of Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone? told Digital Trends.
“When we send a text or email, or we post or tweet, we lose all but what is being said and so there is a lot of misinformation, miscommunication, and hurt feelings, because we don’t have those other sources of information that help us imbue some kind of meaning into what somebody is saying.”
It seems ironic that a device designed to enable communication could have a detrimental impact, but most of us are familiar with phubbing, even if we haven’t heard the term before — it’s a portmanteau of phone and snub.
“When some people start to feel insecure, they instantly look to their lifeline, their smartphones. They don’t realize that sometimes pregnant pauses and uncomfortable lulls in conversation are something to work through,” says Roberts.
“Parenting can be exhausting and boring and repetitive, especially if you have a kid who is tough to handle,” says Radesky. “I’m really interested in how that might drive parents to seek their own emotional regulation through a device. It’s important that parents not feel they need to be exquisitely responsive to their children all waking hours of the day because there’s a point where that becomes intrusive.”
Every parent turns to their smartphones from time-to-time for entertainment, for themselves or for their child, and there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that.
“The question is — are we displacing some of the important parent-child moments and activities where children need to be taught social and emotional skills?”
There’s no easy answer to that. All children have a different set of needs and different temperaments. What they learn from face-to-face conversations is very important, but how much is enough isn’t clear.
If you’re concerned, it’s easy to start taking steps. Put your phone in the trunk when you drive, so you can’t be distracted by it. Don’t allow phones at the dinner table. And the next time you’re chatting to someone and you feel that wee buzz on your leg, or hear an incoming alert, ignore it until you’re done talking — it’s probably not more important than the conversation you’re in.
