Smartphones have become our inseparable companions . 71% of Spaniards take the phone to the bathroom, 37% take a look at it as soon as they get up, 65% would return home to look for it if they forgot – by the way, the irrational fear of leaving home Without a cell phone it has a name: nomophobia– and one in three people looks at their cell phone more than a hundred times a day.

These are data, collected in different surveys, that clearly reflect the relationship of modern women and men with smartphones in this internet age. In fact, according to a recent study carried out by the Pew Research Center – a think tank based in Washington DC – almost 50% of adults say they cannot live without their phones .

That society’s addiction to technology, and specifically to the mobile phone, has increased in recent years is evident. For this reason, researchers from the American University of Arizona have considered it important to consider how smartphones affect our relationships, and, apparently, the attraction we feel for them, as well as the impact they are having on our interpersonal relationships, could be the result of our evolutionary history .

In an article that will soon see the light in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science , David Sbarra, professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona, and his colleagues from Wayne State University, Detroit, carry out an examination of the studies that have been carried out. out so far about techno-conference , a term created by researcher Brandon McDaniel a few years ago while studying the intrusion of smartphones and other technologies into our face-to-face social interactions.

Sbarra and his colleagues suggest that humans are so drawn to our smartphones, to the point of isolating ourselves from those closest to us – family and friends as well as one’s partner – by our evolutionary history. As the University of Arizona explains in a press release, these researchers argue that humans are programmed to connect with others , and that we have always relied on close relationships, in the creation of small family and friend networks with the ultimate goal of survive as individuals and also as a species. These relationships were based on trust in each other and cooperation, which arise when people share personal information about themselves and are sensitive and responsive to others.

By connecting, we isolate ourselves

Smartphones, which allow us constant access to text messages and social media, make it easier than ever for us to disclose personal information and respond to other people . The difference, with respect to our ancestors, is that now the networks are much larger – that is, they are made up of a greater number of people – and that they can also be found much further away, physically, from us.

Evolution, according to Sbarra, was based on the opening of oneself to others and on the capacity to respond in the context of small networks of close people , and now we see that these behaviors are reproduced more or less constantly in social networks and through our phones. Although now our limits have been greatly expanded. “Look no further than the next person you see scrolling through Facebook and hitting the ‘like’ button while your child is trying to tell you a story,” he says.

Video: Security on our mobile phone

In their article, Sbarra and his colleagues suggest that precisely there may be an evolutionary mismatch between smartphones and the social behaviors that help form and maintain close social relationships . “Smartphones create new contexts to reveal information about who we are and to respond to others, and these virtual connections can have unwanted effects on our normal relationships,” says Sbarra. When you get distracted by the device, he explains, your attention is divided, but responding to the interlocutors that we have face to face, which is an essential ingredient to build intimacy, requires our attention in the here and now.

That division of attention can lead to conflict in our relationships. In fact, their research cites a study that was carried out with 143 married women: more than 70 percent of them said that mobile phones frequently interfered with their relationships.

Sbarra and her colleagues do not believe that smartphones are bad per se – they are aware that they can be beneficial to our health and well-being and that texting provides many couples a route to connect in meaningful ways – but they say that More research is needed to fully understand the impact that virtual connections can have on our relationships in the real world and the ways in which that strong attraction we feel for phones can lessen our close interactions and lead to conflict.