Texting and social media is helping men and women get laid faster, maintain their relationships, and breakup easier, says a new joint survey by Shape and Men’s Fitness magazines. According to the 1,200 person study, almost 80 percent of women and 58 percent of men believe that using social media speeds up a relationship and leads to sex sooner. Luckily, once they actually have that sex, few of them let technology get in the way of biology. Only 5 percent of respondents said they would glance at an incoming phone call during sex and only 1 percent would actually answer it.
Technology invades relationships
Starting a relationship: To find dates, people are using technology as well. 65 percent of participants claim to have been asked out on a date via text message and 49 percent have been asked out on Facebook.
Maintaining a relationship: Just as it is with kids and teenagers, texting is king when it comes to maintaining adult relationships. Text messaging is the most popular way lovebirds communicate. Women text 150 percent more often than they phone their significant other. At 39 percent, Men aren’t quite as eager to text, but it’s still quite a bit more popular than the phone.
Ending a relationship: When things don’t work out, technology is becoming a popular way lovers end relationships. 43 percent of women have been dumped with a text message. Women are more manly than men, it seems; only 27 percent of men reported being dumped via SMS.
Stalking old relations: 81 percent of respondents claim they won’t unfriend ex-lovers on Facebook and nearly as many (75 percent) admit to constantly checking profile pages of their exes.
We live in an interesting time. It is possible to start, maintain, and end a relationship with someone you’ve never met before. After that, you can even heartbrokenly stalk that certain someone online until the end of your days. Is so much digital communication a good thing? Can a series of texts replace a phone call? And can a phone call replace seeing someone in person? Should kids know how to operate a smartphone before they can tie their shoes?