Smartphones have revolutionised how we communicate with one another, according to new research.
In a recent paper, Professor Richard Ling at the IT University of Copenhagen, said: "Besides threatening our most private time, phone calls may also intrude the intimate space we share with someone else.
"This is why we feel obliged to at least check who is calling even if this means breaking the intimate space shared with someone else at that time.
"This link between device and person has obviously altered our conversations."
While a mobile phone makes it easier to navigate our social lives and stay in touch with family and friends, is it disconnecting us from people who are but three feet away?
Today it’s not uncommon to sit down to a conversation without someone taking out their mobile phone to check a text message or answer a call.
The other weekend at a college reunion, my former classmates were discussing how expensive London is and how they and their friends cannot secure full-time employment.
Thinking it my duty to liven up the environment, I intervened with: "Ten years ago there was Bobby Hope, Steven Jobs and Johnny Cash. Now there’s no hope, no cash and no jobs."
But nobody laughed and while shrinking into silence, I noticed that most of the table were tapping away on their smartphones.
Were they too absorbed in their phones to acknowledge my sense of humour? Or do I need to improve my jokes?
