Technoference as Technology Interference in The Communication Process: A Study on Married Couples

Abstract

The use of technology disrupts interpersonal communication and interaction and interferes with the communication process. One of the social areas where this is visible is communication between couples. For this reason, it is important to learn the positive or negative characteristics of the use of technological tools in the communication processes, relationship satisfaction and conflict situations of married couples with different age groups and different demographic characteristics, and the effects of technology use on their relationships. In this sense, to determine these effects, the research was carried out with the participation of 264 married people of different ages and demographic characteristics in the province of Istanbul. Technoference scale, relationship satisfaction scale, and romantic patrner conflict scale were used as data collection tools in the research. As a result of the analysis of the research data, it is observed that, in general, as people's use of technology and the effect of technoference in the relationship increase, there is a decrease in people's relationship satisfaction, and accordingly, indirect married couple conflicts in technology use also increase. In addition, married couples' use of technology, relationship satisfaction, and attitudes towards conflict differ according to gender, age, education, and income level.