Don’t encourage them to show you something on their phone during a date. Put your phone away when you’re lounging on the couch. If you want to silently encourage the chronic phubber to stop, be a good example. If you’re trying to help a loved one stop phubbing, here are three steps to get you started: 1. When you’ve completed a goal, treat yourself, and then challenge yourself again.ģ ways to help someone else stop phubbing Keep track of the meals or hours you go without your phone in hand. Challenge yourselfĮveryone enjoys a little prize now and then. Whatever alerts or updates happen, they’ll be waiting for you later. You might feel as if you’ve lost a limb, but don’t be afraid to simply put your phone in your car, desk drawer, or bag - and leave it there. It may feel forced at first, but soon you will feel more comfortable with having a face-to-face conversation. Give yourself each meal to engage with the people in front of you and have a sincere conversation. If a distant buzz of notifications will be too much of a distraction, turn your phone to the “do not disturb” mode, too. When it’s time to eat, no matter where you are, put the phone away. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t learn other ways to check in with social media without scrolling endlessly. In fact, one study found that the urge to check social media is stronger than the urge for sex. If the idea of giving up social media makes you nervous and a little sick to your stomach, you’re not alone. The study found that social media can make feelings of depression worse, and the more you use social media, the more likely you are to feel depression or anxiety. Social media may have a negative impact on your mental health, according to research published in Computers and Human Behavior. Plus, diving into social media may actually make the problem worse. Research also shows that people who are phubbed are more likely to reach for their phones and try to engage with their social media network in order to fill that void. That can have a significant impact on your mental health. When someone phubs you, you may feel rejected, excluded, and not important. What’s the driving force behind those feelings? Phubbing is a threat to four “fundamental needs,” the study found.

A study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that people who viewed simulated snubbing felt more negatively about the interaction when they were told to imagine being the person phubbed than when they were not asked that. The effect of phubbing may be worse on people who find themselves at the receiving end of the snubbing.

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