Texting and Tweeting’s Not Touching and Talking!

In a recent article, noted psychologist and sex therapist Dr. Marty Klein made this observation:

As a sex therapist, I am very concerned by how much trouble young people of both genders are having enjoying sex. Because of the new digital ways of relating—constantly multi-tasking, not learning to listen as carefully, not expecting as much engagement from others, diminished experiential learning about non-verbal cues—they’re not as emotionally present during two-person interactions, which makes sex hard to enjoy at any age. Given the choice of texting, young people even find the real-time give-and-take of a telephone conversation too taxing. The performative culture of selfies, sexting, Instagram and live-Tweeting encourages people to think of sex as one more performance, undermining authentic self-expression.

There’s a sense that significant involvement with “smart” devices suggests people want to be somewhere other than where they are — that a phone call is a reason to interrupt an in-person conversation…

You can’t have a meaningful inter-personal relationship if you’re not “in the moment”.