9 New Ways Your Phone Affects Your Dating Life

Admit it: Every night, you tell yourself you'll be fast asleep by midnight, and then wind up playing around on your phone, opening and closing apps at random, for several hours past your bedtime. It's 2016, so it's no secret that we all suffer from some degree of smartphone addiction. But apparently it's not just our sleeping habits that are being affected — smartphones play a huge role in the sex and dating lives of Millennials, too.

Coupofy, a site for discount codes and deals, surveyed more than 2,000 Millennials about their smartphone usage in hopes of uncovering just how our pocket technology can affect various aspects of our lives. What they found was fascinating (though not altogether surprising): One in three Millennials felt their smartphones led to an improvement in their romantic lives, and 22 percent said their phones changed their expectations of romantic relationships.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of this can be linked to the advent of dating apps. It's hard to imagine a time before swiping to find love, because dating apps have so thoroughly changed the way we communicate, date, and hook up with new people. Per the survey, more than half (54 percent) of us say that our smartphones are our primary tool for communicating with a date, probably because so many of us start our relationships on our smartphones, via Tinder and the like.

While it's not good to be too addicted to your tiny little screen, there's certainly a lot that's changed or been made easier thanks to our smartphones. Here are nine things the survey found about how our phones can affect our love lives — take a break between swiping sessions and check it out.

1. A Third Have Used Their Phone To Get Out Of A Bad Date

Thirty-three percent of Millennials have relied on technology when a date was going downhill, and 29 percent kept their phones out during the date to check their notifications (kinda rude, guys).

2. Entrepreneurs Have The Most Dating Apps

The survey found that only 15 percent of Millennials (a pretty low number, IMO) have at least one dating app. Entrepreneurs had the most, and twice as many as high schoolers.

3. Most Millennials Don't Sext

According to the survey, 64 percent of Millennials don't sext or send naked selfies. The groups most interested in sexting were entrepreneurs (at 56 percent). People aged 25-30 took the most naked selfies, while high schoolers (thankfully) took the least. Men were also three times as likely as women to send sexy messages, and 10 percent of people use sexting as foreplay.

4. Men Are More Likely To Check Their Phone During Sex

Ugh, come on dudes — men were twice as likely to check their phones during sex than women, although 28 percent of people said they get anxious to check their phones while having sex. The overall group most likely to check their phone during sex was high schoolers, which is not really super shocking. As for Millennials, one in three of us admitted to checking our phones right after sex (hey, at least we waited).

5. Smartphone Addiction Can Be A Dealbreaker

For 40 percent of Millennials, having a partner who's a little too obsessed with checking their phone can be a relationship-ender. Another pet peeve? 57 percent of Millennials said they get annoyed if their partner takes longer than expected to respond to a message. It seems like there's a sweet spot between attentiveness and smartphone addiction — beware.

6. We Use Smartphones For Sex Tips

Fifty percent of us have admitted to browsing the web in hopes of improving our sex game. Even more interesting? The biggest group of people googling sex advice are people on maternity or paternity leave. But who can blame them? I've never been pregnant, and it's pretty hard for me to imagine adjusting to having sex with a literal tiny human inside of me; I'd need some tips, too.

7. Most People Are OK With A Partner Borrowing Their Phone

Only 22 percent of people said they'd be uncomfortable letting their partner borrow their phone, which I suppose is good news, because it shows how many Millennials have trusting relationships.

8. People Who Sext Lead Better Social Lives

When looking at sexters versus non-sexters, the survey found that only 12 percent of sexters said their smartphones negatively impacted their ability to connect with family and friends, compared to 17 percent of non-sexters. Also, non-sexters (fittingly) had fewer dating apps than people who sext, and found it less easy to find a partner using a smartphone.

9. Millennials Have A Love/Hate Relationship With Their Smartphones

The survey found that half of people who sext said smartphones made their lives easier, while 17 percent of the non-sexters said smartphones deteriorated their quality of life. Around a quarter of people surveyed said they hate the amount of time they spend on their smartphones, and 12 percent of sexters and 23 percent of non-sexters said their phones make them lazier.

While that might be true, it's still clear that smartphones bring a lot to the table and heavily influence our romantic lives. If you ask me, we should embrace it *hug emoji*.

Images: Fotolia; Giphy (9)