Abstract

Coined as “phubbing”, excessive use of smartphones in the romantic context has been shown to rep-resent a barrier to meaningful communication, causing conflict, lowering relationship satisfaction, and undermining individual well-being. While these findings project a dire picture of the future of romance, the mechanisms behind the detrimental influence of partner phubbing on relationship-relevant markers are still little understood. Considering prior evidence that partner phubbing leads to the loss of exclusive attention towards the other party, we argue that these are rather the feelings of jealousy partner phubbing is triggering that are responsible for the negative relational outcomes. Based on the analysis of qualitative and quantitative responses from “generation Y” users, we find that partner phubbing is associated with heightened feelings of jealousy, which is inversely related to couple’s relational cohesion. Moreover, jealousy plays a mediating role in the relationship between partner’s smartphone use and relational cohesion, acting as a mechanism behind this undesirable link. Challenging the frequently promoted euphoria with regard to permanent “connectedness”, our study contributes to a growing body of IS research that addresses dark sides of information technolo-gy use and provides corresponding implications for IS practitioners.

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