The closeness of couples can be eroded when they're hiding within their phone life.
That's according to clinical psychotherapist Stephanie Regan.
She said prior to the pandemic, people were spending four to six hours on their phone a day.
But she told The Pat Kenny Show this has gone up since: "There is an addiction factor.
"There is a dopamine release, with scrolling especially, and that has an addictive quality.
"Many people will acknowledge that - that they find it hard to put it down, they find it hard to leave it behind.
"So it's not just the social factor and factor that it can kind of dilute our relationships, it's also that the individual themselves finds it difficult to leave it behind.
"If you just look at it in the amount of times that people check and look.
"Also remember there's a lot of e-mailing and all of that - that also happens on the phone, if you think of it that way.
"The suggestion is it's not all scrolling".
'Impinging on connection points'
However there can also be an element of sharing involved too, particularly with young people.
"It's not always that they were disengaging from each other, especially young people.
"We all know this sharing of what's on [social] media - something you've seen, something you like, something you think is funny.
"And they do a lot of that.
"So it doesn't cut people off as much as where you are looking privately at your phone, to look at your messages to look at your e-mail.
"They do a lot of sharing, and I think that's quite a different thing".
But she said other scenarios - such as a couple looking at their individual phones and not sharing - is a problem.
"And of course it's a huge issue if they're in the bedroom. I think it impinges on the connection points.
"We're talking about the idle moments where, instead of turning to each other, that couples are hiding within their phone life.
"It may not matter if you're madly in love and everything is working out super, but it can erode closeness".
