Sam Feaster: Your smartphone is screwing your love life. Here’s the evidence.

Photo credit: Pixabay.

It’s no longer the other man or the other woman who’s threatening your relationship. It’s the other thing. That’s the story of love in the time of tech.

Intel Security did a recent study globally on how the online behavior of people between the ages of 18 and 55 affected their relationships. Here’s what they found out in India:

75 percent of Indians surveyed have fought with their friend, lover, or family member over being on a device while together.
60 percent of adults thought that their spouse or lover paid more attention to their device.
57 percent said they had to compete with their partner’s device for attention on a first date.

If that wasn’t enough, the Intel study says that when at home, the grownups in India are spending more time online than interacting face-to-face with family or friends. Despite playing second fiddle to devices and being mightily displeased with tech eating into their together-time, not many of these adults in relationships have yet thought of drawing some lines around device usage when with each other.

Only about 33 percent of the surveyed reported to have set some device usage rules when they are with their partner.

In Singapore, it appears people are a touch more mindful about their lover’s need than their Indian counterparts. Among the 1,000 Singaporeans questioned, 50 percent felt their lover paid more attention to their smart devices when they were together. Around 1 in 3 said they have had to compete with their date’s device for attention when on their first date.

The Intel Security study was done in December 2016 by OnePoll. In India, they quizzed 1,400 adults who used an internet-connected device every day.

For a tech savvy crowd, Indians turned out to be a tad careless when it comes to online security – 46 percent of couples shared passwords to their social media accounts and 38 percent shared passwords to personal email accounts with each other.

What’s more, nearly 35 percent of people let their partner use their work specific devices and accounts. That may be of some concern to companies that let their employees take work back home.

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