Cell Phones and Broken Bonds
The use of cell phones ruins relationships between friends, family, partners, or any person you share a connection with. Communication over the phone is not healthy. Face to face confrontation is radically superior. These cell phone devices can offer significant risks to the quality of personal interactions.
In this context, “ruin” implies only one meaning. The use of cell phones “ruins” relationships means that it causes significant harm to the quality or strength of a relationship. While it is agreeable that cell phones are very useful for communication, it can destroy a relationship in many ways. One of the most important factors of a relationship is being able to understand each other and their feelings, although this is very difficult via text.
The meaning of communication is where one individual conveys their thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and emotions to another individual in different meaningful or even non meaningful situations. Communication exchange carries additional weight in the context of romantic relationships, where ineffective communication between partners can lead to many problems that threaten the relationship. For example, if you are having a disagreement with someone through messages, it is almost impossible to understand their tone of voice, simply because they are not speaking.
It is important to be able to visibly notice someone’s body language or tone of voice while interacting with them. Being able to notice these things is crucial because it provides additional information on what someone is saying beyond just texting. Facial expressions, gestures, even posture is essential in a meaningful conversation. These things may not be evident in words verbally, but definitely not in words via text messages. Tone of voice conveys many emotions and attitudes that someone may have. It is easier to notice if a conversation is warm and inviting or critical and angry through the tone of an individual’s voice. Paying attention to these little things is important to have a meaningful conversation that can maintain a possibly healthy relationship.
Although there can be both positive and negative influences on using a cell phone as a way of communication, technology introduces a potential to misinterpret messages between close connections, which can lead to a downfall in the relationship. Communication via text can cause a decrease in intimacy levels in a relationship by misinterpretation or not being able to understand your partner’s feelings.
The dependency on cell phones for social interaction can destroy the development of essential relationship skills. Active listening is such an important factor for building and maintaining relationships. Although it can be useful to talk through a problem with your partner via text in a quick manner, overusing it can be harmful to the relationship. It is hard to constantly explain yourself with your two thumbs and a cell phone, rather than just speaking. Text messaging lacks the non-verbal signals that are crucial for conveying emotions and intentions.
Computer-mediated communication are not replacements for normal face-to-face conversations. Obviously communication via text is non-verbal, but how can you understand an individual’s thoughts or feelings if you can’t even listen to them? Studies have shown that the higher the share of texting out of all the communication, the less satisfied people are with their relationship. This is the definition of the concept that the use of cell phone communication ruins connections.
When individuals spend more time on their phone, it is easy to neglect in person experiences or activities that you can share with your partner. Experiencing different things together with your significant other, family, or friends is very essential for building and maintaining a strong bond. If you are constantly on your phone and not enjoying the moment with whomever you are with, it can cause an emotional distance between your relationships.
For instance, when couples spend excessive time on their phone during shared activities, such as going out to lunch or going to a store, something that is so little yet meaningful, they miss out on opportunities to engage in special conversations or experiences. The feeling of knowing your partner’s phone is more important to them than a conversation with you, can lead to isolation and loneliness. Overtime, the lack of genuine interaction can lead to emotional distance or even dissatisfaction in the relationship.
As we all know, cell phones are a big distraction. Either when you are at work, in class, or even talking to someone, it is easy to get distracted by a notification on your phone. Specifically when you are having a meaningful conversation with someone you share a genuine connection with, constant notifications, calls, and messages can disrupt that conversation you are having and cause frustration which then leads to neglect and then other negative feelings that person may endure. It can be easily shown if your partner is more interested in their phone then you.
Furthermore, social media is obviously a large contributor to consequences in a relationship, specifically a lover relationship. Popular platforms, mainly Snapchat or Instagram, often portray pictures of people that your significant other may come across and heart. Seeing that your significant other has “liked” or “double clicked” someone else’s picture that isn’t yours, can create unrealistic expectations that you may feel pressured to live up to the “perfect” picture they encountered through social media.
It is very arguable that cell phones offer numerous benefits. Although, the overuse of cell phones has many negative effects. Miscommunication, distraction, and a decrease in productivity with your partner are just some of the few ways cell phones have negative consequences in different relationships. It is important that individuals need to set boundaries for their use of cell phones, especially in important and meaningful situations. Being fully present in any situation shows respect and appreciation for the experience. Being able to put the phone down shows that you value the time or moment, whether it is a special event, deep conversation, or simply spending time with loved ones. I believe it is important to minimize distractions and prioritize more face-to-face interactions rather than computer-mediated interactions to maintain and build a fulfilling relationship.
References
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451958821000361
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
I appreciate the link you provided for your References, Softball, but they’re not compliant example of bibliographic references. You still need traditional APA-style references (with author name, title, publisher, etc.) AND you should link your titles to their urls. Please update.
Hey, Softball, accuracy in interpersonal relations is certainly an important topic, and you’ve made a set of pertinent observations about it. Absent, though, is any evidence that you relied on research for anything you say here. There’s not a quotation, a citation, a summary of anyone’s research, nothing to suggest that you didn’t just write down the first 1000 words of intelligent thinking you could come up with. And that’s OK. But it doesn’t grade well for a research assignment. And it misses all the wonderful opportunities research provides for learning something new, finding surprises, and sharing vivid examples with your readers.
Do people lose jobs when their bosses misinterpret texts? Do lovers quarrel and break up? Do patients take the wrong medications, or too much of them, based on failure to understand doctors’ instructions? You haven’t put PEOPLE and HUMAN PROBLEMS at the heart of your story, so your story lack heart.
What do researchers find is the most common type of misinterpretation . . . of texts . . . of email . . . of voicemail . . . of Zoom calls? Does the SOUND of the voice mitigate most of the misunderstanding? Does the combination of the SOUND of the voice and the SEEING of the face and body over FaceTime eliminate even more of it? Is there really still a significant loss of nuance between Zoom calls and in-person communications? These are questions every reader will have in her mind as she’s reading your fourth and fifth paragraphs of generalized claims. But . . . what does it MEAN, really, about what we lose by not talking to the person in person?
Your sentence structure needs work, too, Softball. Here are some examples of sentences that thwart interpretation because of the way they’re put together:
Do these examples draw your attention to weaknesses in your writing style? Do the remedies seem achievable? I’d love to have your feedback on this. I don’t want to badger you with advice you don’t find helpful.