Stop phubbing, put down that phone, and start talking!

There are no available statistics here in Thailand – and even there were we wouldn’t lend them credence, since “we don’t want to be confused by facts” – but I am pretty sure that things here are as bad or worse than in Seoul.

South Korea has installed the first batch of 300 warning signs to stop people glued to their smartphones from walking into busy traffic. Collisions of this nature have more than doubled in five years to around 1,000 reported incidents there last year.

Attached to traffic-light poles, the signs depict a person looking at his smartphone as he is about to be hit by a car. 

There appears to be a glaring problem here. If the spate of accidents is caused by pedestrians looking down at their phones while walking, how can you expect them to look up at the warning signs?

The danger of placing hundreds of similar warnings at major intersections here is that Bangkok’s phone-bound pedestrians wouldn’t even notice them: “Sign? What sign? Warning? What warning? Accident? What accident? Oh, I’m sorry for bumping into you… Are you hurt? Sorry, let me take this picture to post on my Facebook first…”

Perhaps a more effective solution is Antwerp’s twist for the same problem. The Belgian city has designed walking lanes for busy shopping streets so that people can stay glued to their smartphones without bumping into other pedestrians.

The German city of Augsburg has gone one step further by embedding traffic lights in the pavement for phone gazers. A more extreme solution to save humankind from “gradual extinction” came in a recent cartoon: An “arm-for-hire” crossing service for pedestrians who can’t take their eyes off mobile screens for even a few seconds.

But if phone-related pedestrian accidents are on the rise, “phubbing” may be even more dangerous, threatening the very fabric of society and family.

Phubbing – from “phone” and “snubbing” – describes a person interacting with their mobile device rather than with a human being. It has become a real epidemic here in Thailand and nobody seems able to do anything about it.

A recent survey published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior said that ignoring your partner in favour of your phone can damage your relationship, but it can also lead to depression and lower rates of overall life satisfaction.

The research team surveyed 453 adults across the US in two separate experiments. In the first, 308 participants were asked to identify “phubbing” behaviours by answering posers such as, “My partner places his or her cellphone where they can see it when we are together” and “My partner glances at his/her cellphone when talking to me”. Researchers used the answers to develop a nine-item scale to measure this new phenomenon.

The second experiment, involving 145 adults, went deeper into  phubbing’s effects. Couples were asked to identify phubbing-associated behaviours within their relationship, how secure they felt in their relationship, how satisfied they were, and how anxious and/or depressed they felt as a result of their partners’ behaviours.

Researchers found that “when people perceived their partners to be phubbers – they spend more time paying attention to their phones – that created conflict in the relationship”.

The study found that even in cases as seemingly inconsequential as checking your phone every once in a while, these few seconds will begin to weigh heavily on your partner’s mind, eventually contributing to an overall feeling of dissatisfaction or inadequacy within the relationship.

You may want to try answering a few of the questions used in the survey based on your own experience:

During a typical mealtime together, my partner pulls out and checks his/her cellphone.

My partner places his or her cellphone where they can see it when we are together.

My partner keeps his or her cellphone in their hand when he or she is with me.

When my partner’s cellphone rings or beeps, he/she pulls it out even if we are in the middle of a conversation.

My partner glances at his/her cellphone when talking to me.

During leisure time that my partner and I are able to spend together, my partner uses his/her cellphone.

My partner uses his or her cellphone when we are out together.

If there is a lull in our conversation, my partner will check his or her cellphone.

The real threat is that phubbing isn’t only putting a serious dent in personal relationships. Its insidious effects have spread to every area of daily life. What, for example, is the point of a meeting in your office where everyone, including the guy who chairs the debate, checks their mobile phone every other second?