Phubbing

Phubbing refers to the act of ignoring one’s immediate social interactions in favor of engaging with a smartphone, making it a prevalent behavior in today's digital age.

While it is frequently associated with the concept of fear of missing out (FOMO), the current body of research presents conflicting evidence regarding the strength and consistency of this relationship.

[1] In May 2012, as part of a linguistic experiment by Macquarie Dictionary, the advertising agency behind the campaign, McCann, had invited a number of lexicographers, authors, and poets to coin a neologism to describe the behavior.

The word "phubbing," a portmanteau of phone and snubbing, was first described by McCann Group Account Director Adrian Mills, who was working with David Astle.

[3] To address these gaps, recent studies aim to create validated scales that capture the complex dimensions of phubbing, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of its impact on social interactions and individual well-being.

It has become increasingly common to observe groups of friends engrossed in their devices, couples at restaurants ignoring one another while staring at their screens, or families spending time together yet disconnected by their preoccupation with smartphones.

[4][5] Furthermore, the habitual nature of phubbing reinforces its cyclical impact: as individuals use their phones to escape stress or loneliness, they inadvertently weaken their relationships, leading to greater isolation and reliance on their devices.

[10] A study by Liu et al. [11] involving 726 adolescents aged 12–18 revealed that parental phubbing significantly disrupted the parent-child relationship, which in turn led to higher levels of mobile phone addiction.

These interactions were linked to heightened rates of behavioral issues, including depression and aggression, with phubbing explaining 26% of the variance in problematic mobile phone use (β = 0.26, p < 0.001).

These findings resonate with the ecological techno-subsystem theory introduced by Johnson and Puplampu, which asserts that modern technologies interfere with family systems and individual development.

In October 2015, media outlets (such as Today[15] and Digital Trends[16]) reported on a study by James A. Roberts, professor of marketing at Baylor University Hankamer School of Business, that was published in the journal Computers In Human Behavior.

[18] A series of studies examined the effects of BPhubbing on employee engagement, grounded in theories like Reciprocated Social Exchange (RSE) and Kahn's psychological conditions.