What is Phubbing and How do I stop it?

Do you ever get comments that you aren’t paying attention to your friends and family? Do you find yourself getting distracted by your phone while you’re spending quality time with your loved ones? Are you worried that your relationships are being tarnished by your relationship with your phone? This common phenomenon is referred to as phubbing: not being present in conversations because you’re on your phone.

What is Phubbing?

Phubbing comes from the term snubbing - phone snubbing. It is often not intentional, and is usually simply a bad habit or addiction to your phone that causes you to not pay attention to the conversations happening around you. Phubbing can happen at any time and in any setting  throughout the day. A common time and place where phubbing occurs is during meals. Most commonly during dinner time, people are on their phones and neglecting the connections and relationships with their friends and family at the dinner table. It's also  common in the morning when you first wake up, checking your phone and social media accounts before anything else. This is also often where partner phubbing takes place. Partner phubbing simply refers to being on your phone while your partner is trying to talk and/or connect with you.

Phubbing is quite common everywhere, and it’s likely that almost everyone has experienced being on one end of a phubbing scenario. Whether it be that you were phubbing or being phubbed, there’s a chance you’ve experienced it at some point in your life. This is problematic because there are actually many harmful effects of phubbing that we’ll dive into throughout this article.

There are various research studies that have explored the effects of phubbing on the person who is committing the phubbing act and the people in close relations to this person. Across all studies, it has been found that phubbing has a negative effect on the person who is phubbing and the close friends and family who are essentially victims of the phubbing acts. The irony in all of this is that your phone is supposed to help you feel and be more connected with your relationships around the world, but often phone users take it too far and their phone actually withdraws them from being present and attentive to the relationships right in front of them. It is important to learn what phubbing actually means,  the effects of phubbing and how they harm the relationships in your life, and how you can  take action to stop phubbing yourself.

How Does Phubbing Affect You?

Many studies have concluded that phubbing can negatively affect your relationships. It interferes with your ability to be present and causes your interactions to be less meaningful. A study found that even just having a phone in sight while having a conversation can negatively affect the meaningfulness of the conversation. So, how does phubbing affect you? 

Phubbing interferes with your personal connections and relationships, and disrupting these crucial aspects of your life, disrupts your mental health. A study from 2017 found that partner phubbing causes dissatisfaction within a relationship and this dissatisfaction increased chances of depression. It has also been found that phubbing can cause people to feel disconnected from their close relationships which can also lead to poor mental health. For example, if you do not feel like you are being heard by the people you are closest to, this can cause you to feel isolated and unappreciated. Feeling alone and disconnected from others can trigger or enhance anxiety or depression. Phubbing has proven to have a negative effect on personal relationships which are very important in order for a person to have a sense of belongingness and meaningfulness. Without this, often a person’s mental health deteriorates. To avoid harming your personal relationships, your mental health, and the mental health of your loved ones, put an end to phubbing.

3 Ways to Stop Phubbing

Some people can’t resist the urge to check their phone for social media, texts, emails, and so on - it’s a phone addiction and we’ve all been there. Luckily there is  an easy solution for you with BlockSite. Imagine you could limit your access to apps and websites on your phone for specific time periods of the day or week so you can  be fully attentive and present with your partner, friends and family. 

Blocksite is a site blocker web extension and app that helps you focus on what really matters by limiting the option to access apps or websites that distract you the most. Phubbing is harmful to you and your relationships, but sometimes simply limiting your phone time is easier said than done. Not to worry, because that is what BlockSite is here for! It limits your phone time for you. Think of BlockSite as your focus partner and sidekick.
Blocksite has various features that help make it easier for you to take time off your phone, you won’t even realize you’ve broken this bad habit and naturally you will rebuild those strong connections with your closest relationships that phubbing was interfering with.

Schedule Feature

With Blocksite’s schedule feature you  can set specific times in your daily or weekly schedule to block your most distracting apps or websites.. This is a very helpful tool to stop phubbing because it allows you to create a personalized schedule of blocking apps and websites which limits your phone time so you can have meaningful conversations and strong connections with those around you. For example, if you struggle with phubbing during dinner time with your family, you can simply create a schedule on Blocksite where you block your most distracting apps and websites during 5:00pm to 7:00pm (or whenever you most commonly have dinner), so you aren’t able able to access these sites or apps nor are you tempted to go on your phone during dinner time. Now your siblings, partner, children, friends, whomever it may be will feel important and prioritized and your relationships will no longer be lacking connection. The schedule feature is a very helpful tool for phubbing because you start to get your control and focus back on your time.

Category blocking

Blocksite also offers a feature called category blocking. Category blocking is very helpful to stop phubbing because it enables users to block out an entire category of apps or websites for a specific period of time. For example, if social media apps are the root of what is pulling you out of conversations and onto your phone, you can category block all of your social media apps as a collective. Category blocking makes it quick and easy for users to remove access to their biggest phone distractions. It’s a great solution  to help stop phubbing because it allows you to disable the use of all distracting apps or websites that fall under the same category all at once. The quickness and efficiency of category blocking can help increase the quickness and efficiency of rebuilding the connections between you and your closest relationships.

Password Protection

Blocksites password protection feature is a solution extremely  beneficial to stop phubbing. Parents, for example, who want to have more meaningful conversations and connections with their children can  benefit greatly  from this feature! All they have to do is block the child's most distracting apps and websites then enable the password protection function so the children cannot access these sites or apps without the password. This is also helpful in cases where you want extra security for ensuring your selected websites and apps stay blocked and that your temptations to visit them don’t win. For example, the password protection feature can be used when you want extra security with not being able to access your distracting apps and sites. You can ask a friend to use the password protection feature on your device so that you don’t know the password required to remove the block over your selected apps and sites. The only way for you to access them is if your friend enters the password. The password protection feature is very helpful to stop phubbing because it ensures extra security that your most distracting apps and websites will remain inaccessible during times when you typically are phubbing the most.

Phubbing might be at the root of the problems in your personal relationships and impacting your mental health and Blocksite is a simple, free solution to help solve  this problem. Try BlockSite today for free. 

Stop Phubbing Before it Affects you

Phubbing is an extremely common problem people experience everywhere. It tarnishes personal relationships, causes people to feel disconnected and excluded from personal connection, and can create or enhance mental health problems. To stop phubbing and rebuild the connections within your personal relationships, let us help you and download Blocksite. Meaningful conversations, high partner satisfaction, and stronger mental health will come by actively avoiding the distractions that cause space and issues. 

FAQs

What is phubbing?

Phubbing is the act of not paying attention during a conversation because you are distracted by being on your phone.

What are the effects of phubbing?

Phubbing affects your personal relationships and your mental health. The effects of phubbing on your personal relationships are harmful because phubbing takes your attention away from meaningful conversations and connections that are important in these relationships. The negative effects of phubbing on your mental health happens because your mental health declines when your connections and relationships decline.

How do you stop phubbing?

You can stop phubbing by simply downloading the Blocksite app on your IOS or Android phone. Blocksite allows you to limit your accessibility to the specific apps and websites that deter you from paying attention in meaningful conversations and removes you from being present with those who are closest to you.