Put smartphone away to rekindle romance

Smartphones are affecting the love lives of nearly 70 percent of women, says a study, adding that technology and the screens that consume us are creating a "technoference" in couples.

"The 'technoference' ranges from picking up the phone while partners are casually hanging out to checking Facebook while in the middle of an argument," said study author Sarah Coyne, psychologist at the Utah-based Brigham Young University in the US.

To reach this conclusion, researchers surveyed 143 married or cohabiting heterosexual women and asked them about their phone, TV, computer and tablet habits.

Nearly 62 percent of women reported that the most common issue was their partner fiddling with the phone during leisure time, MPRnews reported.

A quarter of them said their partner sent texts or emails to people during a face-to-face conversation.

According to Coyne, keeping the phone out of reach would lead to overall life satisfaction.

The results appeared in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture.