Even if you do not know the word phubbing, you certainly have come across this phenomenon. In all likelihood, there are several people among your acquaintances or family who are real phubbers. You might be the one as well. If you want to know more about what phubbing is and why people become phubbers, you are in the right place.
What is phubbing?
You certainly know what phubbing is. Anytime you are talking to a person who is extremely absorbed in one’s phone, it is phubbing. Of course, if the one really needs to do something urgent, it is not regarded as phubbing, however, the rest of the time when a person with whom you are having a conversation is scrolling posts on social networks, articles on websites, watching videos or chatting with someone, it is a pure example of phubbing.
On the one hand, you might feel such a behaviour is impolite and just lose interest in talking to that person. On the other hand, you might reach out for your smartphone as well. In any case, such a behaviour is rather disturbing for both a phubber and the people who are trying to talk to him or her.
Why people are prone to phubbing?
There is no single answer to this question. Certainly, phubbing is a result of an addiction to a smartphone. Everything depends on the exact things a person has to constantly check using his or her gadget.
For some people, phubbing is the result of the fear to miss something important when it comes to one’s work. For others, it is connected to the urge of being up-to-date on social networks or the urge to check one’s own popularity coming with likes, friends and followers. There are many other specific addictions such as just browsing the Internet or playing games on a smartphone. In any case, it is an addiction.
Many scientists are claiming the problem is not in the gadgets themselves and it is more connected to the lack of will power. While this might be true, such a claim is still a bit controversial. The problem is that many games, websites and apps are created in the way to attract more and more users and make them use these services over and over again. Taking into consideration the ease with which one can reach a smartphone as well as an actual necessity of keeping in touch with others, it is very difficult to keep the will power on an appropriate level which will let smartphone users to clearly distinguish the situations in which they can grab their phones or not.
Gender differences and phubbing
Interestingly, scientists studying the phenomenon of phybbing have noticed certain differences of phubbing in men and women. According to the statistics women are more prone to phubbing and are also spending more time using their smartphones when they are not supposed to.
This difference might be related to the different attitude of women and men to smartphones in general.
According to studies, the majority of men see smartphones more as an advanced piece of electronics which is offering a variety of opportunities for usage. At the same time, the majority of women connect their smartphones to the possibilities of social influencing. It is possible that such a tendency visible among many women is making them more prone to check their smartphones more frequently while meeting people in the real time.
It is crucial to notice that once a person gets absorbed by a gadget ignoring another speaker, it leads to a situation in which the speaker reaches out for one’s phone as well making even more people get influenced by phubbing.