Smartphone dependency is on the rise. According to Dr. James A. Roberts, “the typical American checks his or her smartphone once every six-and-a-half minutes, or roughly 150 times each day.”
When one of these frequent phone checks interrupts a conversation or quality time with a romantic partner, it can have serious consequences on the relationship.
The term “phubbing” (derived from “phone-snubbing”) describes those moments we are all too familiar with, when one partner gets distracted by their phone and the other partner feels rejected.
In fact, phubbing has become so common that it is now one of the biggest sources of conflicts in romantic relationships—right up there with arguments about money, kids, and sex!
The sexual health department at the Cheikh Khalifa Ben Zayed international university hospital in Casablanca in Morocco has revealed that nearly 60 per cent of the study participants admitted having problems in their sex lives because of smartphones.According to a report in Morocco World News citing the scientific study, all 600 participants had smartphones and a whopping 92 per cent admitted to using them at night.
Only 18 per cent of them put their phones on airplane mode in their bedrooms.
The study found that the smartphones negatively impacted adults aged between 20 and 45 years, with 60 per cent saying the devices disturbed their “sexual performances.”
“Around 50 per cent of the interviewees declared “not being comfortable” with their sex lives because of the large portion of time allocated to smartphone use,” the report mentioned
A survey by US-based SureCall — a company that produces devices to boost cell phone reception, last year found that 17 per cent millennials reach for their smartphone during sex.
Almost three-quarters said they sleep with their smartphone either on or next to their bed at night. Those who sleep with their phone nearby were twice as likely to admit they feel fear or anxiety when away from the device.
Alarmingly, these people were also twice as likely to say they are “somewhat dissatisfied with their lives”, the survey claimed.
An earlier study by Durham University and commissioned by condom-maker Durex found that people are more likely to be seduced by gadgets than by their partners.
One third of participants in the study admitted to interrupting sex to answer incoming calls.
Mark McCormack, who carried out the interviews, said taking gadgets into the bedroom has “potentially serious costs to relationships”.
Couples keen to know how their smartphones could make their sex lives more exciting were surprised to learn the answer is the switch-off key.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Brandon McDaniel, who studied phones and relationships at Illinois State University, “found that when technology devices frequently interrupted partners, couples had more conflict over technology use, lower relationship satisfaction, more depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction.”
Yet, this is an incredibly common problem. A study on “Technoference,” the interference of technology in relationships, found that 70 percent of participants reported that smartphone interruptions negatively impacted interactions with their romantic partners.
Authors of the study explain that by allowing technology to interrupt time spent with romantic partners “individuals may be sending implicit messages about what they value most, leading to conflict and negative outcomes in personal life and relationships.”
The bottom line is: nobody likes to be phubbed. It makes us feel as though our partners don’t take us seriously and/or don’t find us interesting. It leads to more insecurity in ourselves and more uncertainty about our relationships.
So, if your goal is to have a happy, healthy relationship, it’s best to consistently prioritize your partner over your smartphone. The more distance you put between yourself and your phone, the more closeness you can achieve in your relationship.
Illustrations in the book are by Akshay Dinakar, who is a product designer who graduated from Stanford University. He is an entrepreneur focused on the intersection of engineering and personal wellness.
The South Asian population are found to be at higher risk for heart diseases and suffer premature heart attacks than any ethnic groups. More South Asians die at younger age with heart attack than others. They are also at greatest risk for insulin resistant type 2 diabetes despite their body weight among all ethnic groups.
In this context there is heightened feelings of responsibility among healthcare organizations and professionals to take steps to increase awareness to mitigate the risk in the South Asian community. Indian Nurses Association of New York (INANY) initiated this Health Fair with the goal of reaching out to the community to provide a comprehensive health screening and education which included screening, assessment and education to increase awareness for leading a mindful life.
The four-hour long event at Tyson Center in Floral Park, NY was attended by roughly hundred people. Professional staff from Northshore Health, the largest healthcare network in New York state administered flu shot to those that did not get it this year. At the physical therapy booth, people enjoyed the fun-filled hands on learning activities with the therapists from Marathon Physical Therapy which included technics for balancing, muscle strengthening, neuro-motor coordination and so on. Dr. Srihari Naidu, a well-known cardiologist and his physician wife conducted cardiac screening, electrocardiogram and provided heart-health education. Several people were able to undergo diabetes diagnostic screening known as Hemoglobin A1c and educated on metabolic problems, complications of diabetes, and health maintenance through diet management. The soothing aromatic air in and around the wellness promotion booth invited the attendees to get learn about coping mechanisms and relaxation technics to reduce every day stress. People learned that stress is part of daily life. Still, the impact of not managing stress would take a toll on our body and mind. Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation training to the public was another highlight of the event with the goal of preparing the public to save lives in emergencies.
The Education Committee of INANY under the chair of Dr. Anna George led the organization of this Community Health Fair. INANY represents and voices for the Indian nurses and nursing students in New York State. It has been providing support to the nurses through Continuing Education Conferences, job placements, tuition discounts for higher studies through relationship with universities and nursing scholarships in the United States and in India. Tara Shajan, its current president acknowledges the contributions of the strong and resourceful leadership team for its services.
“Our programming team has worked incredibly hard to strike the right balance and showcase the most current, ground-breaking, topical independent cinema from various parts of South Asia at our inaugural festival,” said Jitin Hingorani, Founder and Festival Director. “We have focused our efforts on really engaging the millennials (Generation Z), as they are the future filmmakers, cinephiles, producers and investors, who will, ultimately, support film festivals like ours; so, it is our inherent responsibility to educate them about world-class cinema that is beyond Bollywood.”
While the trends are clear – the U.S. is steadily becoming less Christian and less religiously observant as the share of adults who are not religious grows – self-described Christians report that they attend religious services at about the same rate today as in 2009. Today, 62% of Christians say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month, which is identical to the share who said the same in 2009. In other words, the nation’s overall rate of religious attendance is declining not because Christians are attending church less often, but rather because there are now fewer Christians as a share of the population.
The trends documented in Pew Research Center surveys closely resemble those found in the long-running General Social Survey (GSS), a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, with principal funding from the National Science Foundation. In GSS surveys conducted in the early 2000s (2000 to 2004), 80% of U.S. adults identified as Christians, including 54% who described themselves as Protestants and 25% who were Catholic. By the late 2010s, 71% of GSS respondents described themselves as Christians (48% Protestant, 23% Catholic). Over the same period, the GSS found that religious “nones” grew from 14% of the U.S. adult population to 22%.
Similarly, the GSS finds that a declining share of U.S. adults say they attend religious services regularly. In the most recent GSS studies, 43% of respondents say they attend religious services at least monthly, down from 47% in the early 2000s and 50% in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the share of U.S. adults who say they “never” attend religious services now stands at 27%, up from 18% in the early 2000s and roughly double the share who said this in the early 1990s (14%).
Among white adults, the share of people who say they attend religious services a few times a year or less now exceeds the share who attend monthly or more (57% vs. 42%); a decade ago, the white population was evenly divided between those who went to church at least monthly and those who did not. Regular churchgoers still outnumber those who infrequently or never go to religious services among black Americans (58% vs. 41%), though the share of people who say they attend religious services a few times a year or less often has risen over the last decade among black Americans, just as it has among the population as a whole. U.S. Hispanics are now about evenly divided between those who say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month (51%) and those who say they attend a few times a year or less (49%).
Pew Research Center’s telephone political polls do not typically include the detailed questions that are needed to determine whether Protestants identify with denominations in the evangelical, mainline or historically black Protestant tradition. However, the political polls upon which this analysis is based do ask Protestants whether they think of themselves as “born-again or evangelical” Christians. The data shows that both Protestants who describe themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians and Protestants who are not born-again or evangelical have declined as a share of the overall U.S. adult population, reflecting the country’s broader shift away from Christianity as a whole. However, looking only at Americans who identify as Protestants – rather than at the public as a whole – the share of all Protestants who are born-again or evangelical is at least as high today as it was in 2009.
TAJ EXPRESS is choreographed by one of Bollywood’s top young choreographers, Vaibhavi Merchant (Sultan, Befikre, Tiger Zinda Hai, Loveyatri) and directed by Shruti Merchant (Dhoom, Lakshya, Baghban, Devdas). They are joined by Toby Gough (writer), Salim and Sulaiman Merchant (music composers), Abhijit Vaghani (musical director), and Bipin Tanna (costume designer). Pranav Merchant serves as executive producer.
He was the Chairman of the CCBI Commission for Liturgy from 2015 onwards and the member of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). He has also served CCBI from 2003 to 2007 as the Chairman of the CCBI Commission for Liturgy.