The Macquarie Dictionary defines “phubbing” – a portmanteau of “phone” and “snubbing” – as “the act of snubbing someone you are with by playing on a mobile phone”. But, according to new research, it’s more serious than simply being rude: if you and your partner can procreate, “phubbing” has been identified as a threat to human reproduction. Seriously.

In July, a team at Anna University in Chennai, India, released its findings after surveying 300 people aged 21 to 45 who’ve been in committed relationships for up to 15 years. The researchers found that couples who use their mobiles the most registered a decline in eye contact … and sexual activity.

“Phubbing, as a subtle but persistent form of partner neglect, may contribute to declining reproductive intent by eroding emotional foundations,” they warned. Writing in the African Journal of Reproductive Health, the researchers added that a preoccupation with our mobile phones “disrupts human intimacy by reducing face-to-face attention, emotional closeness [and] sexual desire”. Indeed, their findings “provide strong evidence that phubbing, frequently dismissed as a trivial annoyance, may have deeper evolutionary and relational consequences”.

Relationships Australia NSW CEO Elisabeth Shaw has been counselling couples for 25 years and says phone usage is now a common complaint among aggrieved partners, who insist that it’s responsible for a lack of presence in the relationship, its endless notifications triggering feelings of jealousy in a partner who feels emotionally neglected. “A partner sees you are physically, but not mentally, present,” she says. “A phone can fill a dead moment in a conversation, but it can also mask shyness and social anxiety, or amplify that a partner might feel they no longer have much to discuss with their loved one.” She encourages people to be aware of their phone usage.

It’s probably fair to assume that evolution of the human species wasn’t high on the agenda in the boardroom at Melbourne ad agency McCann in 2012 when the term “phubbing” was coined by a then-23-year-old Alex Haigh, a marketing graduate interning at the agency. The word was originally created for client Macquarie Dictionary’s release of its sixth edition, but it cleverly crystallised a 21st-century social phenomenon and ended up going viral. Thirteen years later, it remains firmly in the lexicon.

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