Confession: I love my phone. I take it everywhere. I feel anxious when it’s not around. I even sleep with it nearby. If you’re like me, you too have probably fallen in love with your smartphone over the past couple years. This love of technology got us thinking.  Does our passion for gadgets and social media hurt human interaction or improve it? With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we decided to find out just how much technology affects relationships.

Technology keeping it exciting

According to a recent survey, 25% of Canadian technology users say the use of technology to stay connected with their significant other keeps their relationship exciting! And, it’s not just women who feel this way. Of that 25%, it was evenly split among men and women. Of those surveyed that think technology helps spice up the relationship, people from Quebec were the highest with 31% agreeing with this statement.

Time well wasted

How much time do you spend talking to your significant other each day? According to our research of Canadian technology users, the average young adult (18-24) spends 2.5 hours using technology to communicate to their boyfriend or girlfriend each day!

Dating and dumping

We all know technology can be used to connect people, but what about when it comes time to break it off? Overall, the phone remains the most popular method to hook up or break up. 48% of those surveyed have been asked out over the phone and 18% admitted to being dumped.

While 31% of 18-24 year olds surveyed said they have been asked out via a social networking site like Facebook, the favourite Gen Y approach is definitely the phone. More than half (60%) of 25-34 year olds surveyed have been asked out over the phone.

And what about text message? Can you really communicate your feelings in just a few characters? Apparently, you can. 27% of 18-24 year olds think it is totally fine to ask someone out on a first date through a text message. In fact, 40% say they’ve actually been asked out in a text message before. Only 12% have been dumped.

Of all Canadian technology users surveyed, the ladies are more open to being asked out via text than men. 14% of women versus 9% of men feel texting is a perfectly fine way to ask someone out on a first date. So guys, if you’re on the fence about sending that text to that special someone, I say go for it! It just might work out for you.

What do you think? Is technology hurting or helping romantic encounters?

Hungry for more stats? Check out the Rogers Innovation Report where we looked at technology predictions for 2012.

Miranda is a regular contributor to RedBoard

Information about our research: From January 13^th to January 23^rd 2012, an online survey was conducted among 1,403 randomly selected adult Canadians that own a smartphone or tablet and use texting, social networking, video calling, email, instant messaging, or BBM. All were Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 2.6%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to region and gender. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.