Disrupted Connection: A Daily-Diary Study of Technointerference, Intimacy, and Partner Dynamics in Long-Term Romantic Relationships

Smartphones are now embedded in the everyday lives of couples—helping partners communicate, coordinate, and stay connected. Yet the same devices can also interrupt face-to-face interactions. A glance at a notification or time spent scrolling may seem inconsequential, but repeated moments of divided attention may influence whether partners feel heard, valued, and emotionally connected.

In the MRI-funded project Disrupted Connection: A Daily-Diary Study of Technointerference, Intimacy, and Partner Dynamics in Long-Term Romantic Relationships, Dr. Andrea Meltzer of Florida State University examines how everyday technology use shapes intimacy and relationship functioning among long-term romantic partners.

The project focuses on technointerference, or “technoference”—the disruption of in-person interaction by smartphones and other digital technologies. Previous research has associated technoference with lower intimacy, greater conflict, jealousy, and poorer relationship functioning. Much of this work, however, has relied on one-time surveys or general estimates of technology use, making it difficult to understand how these processes unfold within couples from one day to the next.

Dr. Meltzer’s study takes a daily, dyadic approach. Rather than asking simply how much people use their phones, the project examines whether partners experience changes in closeness, satisfaction, commitment, and conflict on days when their own—or their partner’s—technology use differs from usual.

The study will include 180 cohabiting couples from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Both partners will complete baseline measures of relationship satisfaction, commitment, and relevant individual characteristics. Couples will also participate in a recorded 10-minute discussion about an important relationship concern, providing an observational measure of how partners communicate and manage disagreement.

For the following 14 days, each partner will independently complete nightly assessments of smartphone and social media use alongside measures of closeness, relationship satisfaction, commitment, conflict, perceived partner responsiveness, communication, and attraction to potential alternative partners. This daily-diary design allows the researchers to distinguish between stable differences among couples and fluctuations occurring within the same couple over time.

The recorded conversations provide an additional window into these relational processes. Trained research assistants will code cooperative and oppositional communication as well as emotional expressions such as anger, contempt, and disgust. Integrating observational and daily-diary data will allow the research team to examine whether couples’ established communication patterns shape how technology use is experienced within the relationship.

A central feature of the project is its dyadic perspective. One partner’s technology use may influence not only their own experience of the relationship but also their partner’s. The study therefore examines both actor effects—associations between an individual’s technology use and their own relationship experience—and partner effects, or associations between one person’s technology use and the other partner’s experience.

The project also considers mechanisms that may help explain these associations. Smartphone use may reduce attention directed toward a partner, potentially diminishing feelings of responsiveness and connection. Social media use may operate differently, increasing exposure to alternative partners and opportunities for social comparison. Examining these pathways may help clarify why particular forms of technology engagement are more consequential for relationships than others.

Importantly, the study does not conceptualize smartphones as inherently harmful to relationships. Their effects may depend on when and how they are used and on the interactional context in which use occurs. Technology that facilitates communication or coordination may function differently from technology that repeatedly interrupts moments requiring attention and responsiveness.

By examining technology use as part of an ongoing dyadic process, this project moves beyond broad questions about “screen time” to focus on the everyday interactions through which connection and disconnection develop. In doing so, the research may contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how couples negotiate technology within their relationships and how small, repeated patterns of attention may shape intimacy over time.