Communication in Relationships - Report Example

Communication in relationships The article by Amanda Lenhart and Maeve Duggan in the Pew Research Centre. The article talks about the role technology has taken in the day to day lives of people in relationships and suggests that people now use technology more as a means of communication rather than meeting face to face in order to communicate and keep in touch with each other. It also discusses how couples use technology in order to make their relationships stronger. It also increases the chances of couples growing closer as they share passwords to their personal pages. There are several statistics that the article gives (Lenhart). The report claims that 10% of internet users admit that technology has had a major effect on their relationships. Married couples stated that technology did not affect their relationships in any major way. 20% of the users claimed that the impact of technology on their relationship was negative while more than a quarter of married couples had texted or communicate via technology when they were both in the house. 21% of respondents claimed that technology helped them feel closer to their spouses as technology helped them keep in touch whenever they were at work or far from each other. A quarter of the respondents felt that their partners neglected them when they were together as they were busy using technology (Lenhart). It was also evident that some couples had fought about the use of technology and the amount of time that the partner was spending on technology and online. Some of the couples were annoyed or jubilant with what their partner was doing online. Youths reported that technology had both positive and adverse effects on their relationships and said that technology made them feel closer to their partners. They seemed closer due to the online and instant messaging services. 23% of individuals aged between 18 and 29 claimed that they were able to solve some problems online that they were not able to address face to face. Some of them felt that they felt pressure in their relationships as a result of technology while almost half of the respondents claimed that attention shifted from them to the technological gadgets. Nearly 20% felt that their partners were spending too much of their time online (Lenhart). Almost 10% claimed that they were bothered by what their partners were doing online. These were statistics on individuals under the age of 65 where the respondents over the age of 65 did not report such issues as they used less technology ion their day to day operations. 67% of the people claimed that their partners had passwords to their personal accounts and almost a third of respondents used the same email address in their operations and those who had been in a relationship for more than 10 years were found to be particularly prone to sharing an email address while 11% of the respondents shared social media profiles. The individuals who have been in relationships for longer periods of time show a different pattern from those who have been in relationships for much shorter periods of time. This is probably because they have been in relationships for a much longer time even before technology and social media sites such as Facebook came up and thus have a much stronger foundation than the younger generation (Lenhart). Couples that had come together before the era of technology tended to do things together as a couple rather than independently as is the norm with younger couples. The article published by the Guardian where the writer talks about the tinder effect that is the psychological impact of technology in relationships. The article talks of tinder that is an online site for dating which enables people interested in dating to date. It is considered a more sophisticated application than the previous applications. The site is more trustworthy than the rest of the sites because it imports the data from Facebook and thus the data is considered correct, Tinder also considered more accurate and takes care of the people’s needs to feel important and to feel that they fit in the world today (Premuzic). Tinder is also more modern than the previous online dating sites and also gives the user a more real experience than the rest of the online dating sites. Psychologists have found out that people are more superficial than they seem to be and they would rather judge a person through their pictures in a short period than spend actual real time with them and getting to know their personalities. The article also implies that people hardly have time to meet face to face with each other due to busy work schedules, and, therefore, online dating sites tend to cover that gap and that as much as people have to go to work, they still have the need to meet with other people and have social lives out of their workplaces. The differences in the two articles is that one while gives the statistics on the effect of technology on communication in relationships, the other one provides an example of an online dating site through which potential couples meet and try to form a satisfactory relationship. They also talk about technology and the way people have evolved to using technology in their relationships. It would have been better if both advantages and disadvantages had been highlighted in the reports because the information that has been emphasized in the reports has been investigated a lot over the years. The issue of technology and the effect that technology has on peoples lives have been a major problem under study in the last several years. Technology has been known to have some disadvantages and advantages. Some of the advantages of technology in communication in relationships is the fact that it helps people who are in long distance relationships keep in touch with each other. For instance, one can call at any time, and there are applications such as Skype that enable the couple actually to see each other as they talk. Technology has allowed the people to feel closer even if they are far away from each other (Hawkins). It also helps couple to keep in touch with each other during the day when they are away at work or even for short stays away from each other such as work assignments that take them to far away towns. Communication in relationships is crucial as it keeps people interested and in touch with what is happening in the life of the other person. Some of the major disadvantages of technology in relationships is that it makes the couples escape the real events. At the point when technology upsets the reality imparted to ones partner it can undermine the very profits it manages. Turning on the portable computer to check ones messages or noting an assembly amid time – be it supper, the stroll in the recreation center or the late night sitcom, is a passionate detach as it replaces the association with the partner with an option relationship (Hertlein). At the point when this kind of disturbance is an intermittent event, most partners only pick it up in the minute. When it is unending, it dissolves the supported consideration expected to feel known and uncommon to one another. People use electronic media to make confrontation easier, as individuals are often uncomfortable with a face-to-face confrontation, so its easy to understand why theyd choose to use the Internet and this has seen more than one relationship falter, as a result. Definitely in light of the fact that electronic media transmit feeling so ineffectively contrasted with in-individual cooperation, numerous perspective it as the ideal approach to send troublesome messages: it pieces us from enlisting the negative enthusiastic reactions such messages induce, which gives us the deception were not by any stretch of the imagination doing mischief (Hertlein). Unfortunately, this also usually means we dont transmit these messages with as much empathy, and often find ourselves sending a different message than we intended and breeding more confusion than we realize, and often find ourselves sending a different message than we intended and producing more trouble than we realize. Technology cant supplant at this very moment closeness as content is not a touch. Neurophysiologically, people understand that cozy sets, be they mother and baby or accomplices, need eye to eye association. They require sooner or later to hold one anothers look and somehow they have to feel one anothers touch. Technology can be utilized as a part of a negative approach to decrease push by partners. The kept calling, messaging or messaging by an accomplice to "feel associated," "apply impact" or "look after reconnaissance" is a confounded endeavor to feel better. Messaging somebody amidst a work day to proceed with a battle or make one more point – is an interruption that does little for determination, adoration or association. On the off chance that a partner feels focused on when your guest ID flashes or your content appears– something isnt right. Technology likewise turns into an obligation when online utilization is an exorbitant endeavor to escape sentiments (Hawkins). Accordingly, it not just neglects to manage tension and anxiety, it can turn into a fixation that risks your individual working and your relationship. Running on the internet (betting, porn, feature amusements) instead of feeling or managing leaves both partners out. Real life gets to be excessively unsafe and therefore less and less possible. The Internet is an impressive innovation. And be that as it may even as it’s contracted the world and united people, its debilitated to push people further apart. Like any valuable apparatus, to make innovation serve us well obliges the activity of decision-making ability. For reasons unknown, the limitations that prevent the vast majority of individuals from talking about things out in the open that they know shouldnt appear to be far weaker when their mode of correspondence is typing. Lamentably, wrote messages frequently wound much all the more gravely, while electronic messages of regret incomprehensibly have little power to mend. Maybe people simply dont think such messages have the same force to damage as when couples say them in person (Hawkins). Maybe seemingly out of the blue without an alternates physical vicinity to keep us down, we just couldnt care less and whatever the reason, it is unmistakably far simpler for us to be meaner to each other on the web. Modern technology a permit couples to be in contact with one another like never before in the recent past. This can prompt expanded desires and clash. With the expanding utilization of mobile phones and email, individuals frequently anticipate that a moment answer will correspondence (Hertlein). A deferred response or none whatsoever - can prompt suspicion and outrage. The utilization of interpersonal organizations can likewise influence connections. Data that was once private -, for example, relationship clashes - is currently a piece of the general population circle. This information is useful in my life as it helps me to decide how to use technology to build my relationship. I am aware of what makes any relationship fail in regards to technology, and therefore I would be keen to avoid making the same mistakes. As much as technology makes life convenient, it can also make relationships fail as one partner feels that they are not getting enough attention as their partner is always using technology. I would be aware of the effects such as detachment and using technology to deal with issues that would rather be dealt with face to face. I would be keen to notice when technology is taking over my relationship and deal with them effectively before it ruins the partnership. Works Cited Amanda Lenhart, Maeve Duggan. Couples, the Internet, and Social Media. 11 February 2014. Online. 27 February 2015. . Hawkins, B. P., & Hertlein, K. M. "Treatment strategies for couple problems related to massively multiplayer online games." Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy (2013): 150-167. Document. Hertlein, K. M., & Blumer, M. L. C. The couple and family technology framework: Intimate relationships in a digital age. New York: Routledge, 2013. Document. Premuzic, Tomas Chamorro. The Tinder effect: psychology of dating in the technosexual era. 17 January 2014. Online. 27 February 2015. . Read More