LOVE/HATE
When Two Partners Have Very Different Feelings About Tech
A relationship between a Luddite and an early adopter can come with unique problems
Shortly after I began dating the man who would become my husband, I left my flip phone in the back seat of a cab. The next day, my iPod broke. This was in 2011, a time when it felt natural to get music from one device and texts from another, so I planned on replacing both. But my boyfriend was having none of it: It’s time to get an iPhone, he said. Though I’d resisted the device for years (who needed all those features?), his argument made sense, and I agreed. Little did I know that this was the first of many times that my indifference to technology would be challenged by his need to have — and have everyone in his life have — all the newest gadgets.
We’ve now been together eight years, and not much has changed. In fact, when I told him I was writing a story about differing attitudes toward tech in relationships, his first reaction was to suggest that I put the payment for this piece toward a new iPhone.
I don’t want a new phone, but that’s beside the point. The point is that the disparity between how partners view tech is an increasingly common element of relationships, and it can create a landscape that’s sometimes…
