Majority says cellphone use in social settings hurts conversation

The vast majority of adults says using a cellphone at a social gathering hurts the conversation, according to a new survey, but most cellphone users used one at their last gathering.

Eighty-nine percent of cellphone users said that they used their phone during their last social gathering, even though 82 percent of people said that using a cellphone at a social gathering frequently or occasionally hurts the conversation. Thirty-three percent said they believed it contributed to the conversation.

{mosads}The data, from a Pew Research Center survey, paints a picture of how the proliferation of smartphones is shifting social mores.

Thirty percent of people, the survey found, use their cellphones during gatherings because they did not want to talk about what the group was discussing, because they wanted to connect with people outside the group they were with or because they were no longer interested in what the people around them were doing.

But more people, 78 percent, said that they used their phones at social gatherings in ways that bolstered their experience with the group, like taking a photo of the group or posting about the gathering on social media.

Some settings are considered off-limits to cellphone use. Relatively few people said it was “generally OK” to use their phones in churches, meetings, movie theaters and family dinners.

The survey had a sample size of 3,217 adults who were polled on the phone and web between May 30, 2014, through June 30, 2014. The margin of error for the total sample was plus-or-minus 2.2 percentage points. Of the larger sample, 3,042 were cellphone users.