Pubbing!

According to the Urban Dictionary, the term “phubbing” describes a person who is snubbing someone else in favor of the person’s own mobile phone. Wikipedia describes phubbing as a term coined as part of a campaign by Macquarie Dictionary to describe the habit of snubbing someone in favor of a mobile phone (May 2012). Naturally, that term represents advances in technology and the way in which human beings use that technology—namely, mobile phones. Results of a study about phubbing at the Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University, were published in Computers in Human Behavior. Nearly half of study participants reported they’d been ‘phubbed’ or P-phubbed by their Partner and almost half of those indicated this had caused conflict. The abstract pointed out that, ”Although the stated purpose of technology like smartphones is to help us connect with others, in this particular instance, it does not. Ironically, the very technology that was designed to bring humans closer together has isolated us from these very same people.” More tomorrow.