He Phubbing It is one of those new words that describes a daily scene that anyone can recognize: to be in a conversation and that, suddenly, the other deviates the look towards the screen of his cell phone, as if what happens in the digital world had more value than the physical presence. The term comes from English – the union of “Phone” (cell phone) and “snubbing “ (despise) – and began to circulate in international media a few years ago, until it was installed as a concept that reveals much more than a passing habit: it shows a cultural change in the way of relating.
Different articles by The New York Times and The Guardian have approached him as a “modern evil” that erodes emotional ties. It is not just a matter of education or courtesy, but how attention is negotiated between the face -to -face and the virtual. In an editorial published by The Washington Post, the psychologist Sherry Turkle He summed it up: “When we chose the phone above the conversation, we transmit a message: what I have on my screen is more important than you.”
In the country, the issue also gained space in opinion columns and academic studies. Local psychologists point out that Phubbing not only generates frustration in who is “ignored”, but also multiplies the feeling of anxiety in who practices it. “People with this type of behavior do not necessarily seek something specific in their mobile phones, but present low control and anxiety capacity or fear of missing” something “, what is now known as Fomo, for its acronym in English. There is a reduction in the ability to control the impulses, then the technological stimulus competes with the presence of other people,” said the psychologist Anabella Serventi.
Débora Puacepsychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy, stressed: “In the couple it generates a feeling of disinterest, carelessness and lack of emotional presence. In the family, especially with children, it can produce distance and communication problems. With time erodes the trust, intimacy and quality of links. Although it crosses everyone, it does not impact in the same way. Young people are usually more vulnerable because their social life is closely linked to the social life, while their social life is close That adults can do so for work or habit.
Before consultation on whether social networks use in this type of behavior Serventi clarified: “Social networks are linked to this trend, we inform ourselves and learn with videos of less than a minute and the instantaneity of the messaging. These aspects promote a behavior linked to a decrease in the ability to delay gratification and tolerance to frustration.” Excessive use of cell phone and emotional isolation generated Phubbing can increase anxiety, irritability and sensation of loneliness. In the long term, it can affect the self -esteem and the quality of the links, which are a fundamental protective factor of mental health, ”concluded.
The specialists agree that the habit has a solution. To intervene in the problem, the first thing that is advised is to become aware of it, because it is a type of behavior that usually goes unnoticed. Help guide schedules to use the cell phone and avoid having them at the time of significant meetings. Even have a place where to leave the mobiles when entering the home so as not to have them always in hand. Use a visible clock in the environments not to consult the time on the screen Sum to reverse this behavior.
The phenomenon opens a broader debate about the uses of technology. It is not about demonizing mobile devices, but phubbing works as a mirror of an era in which the urgency of being connected coexists with the difficulty of being present.
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