After having a long conversation with a friend about relationships, I began to think about why I constantly find myself getting sick of a girlfriend after hitting that six-month mark. I think of my parents and wonder in amazement about how they have managed to put up with each other for so long, but then it dawned on me – the problem with relationships in our generation is the cell phone.

Social networks like Facebook and Myspace play a role in this as well, but the cell phone is number one culprit when it comes to the quick demise of what started as a great relationship. Think about it. Our parents grew up in a world without cell phones. Typically, the man held down an eight hour, 9-5, job with lets say a combined commute of an hour each day. Even if we factor in a 15 minute phone call from a lunch break and then maybe another at the end of the day, this adds up to over 40 hours a week of non-conversation between a couple.

If I were physically unable to converse with a girlfriend for 40 hours per week, I’d bet that I would be twice as excited to spend time with her. She would represent everything other than the stress of work, and both she and I would have eight hours a day to develop and store topics and ideas, which would lead to hours of exciting conversation in the evening. Today, there is no barrier of personal space between couples.

Yes, initially, cell phones and text messaging offered a way to send cute messages to your significant other throughout the day. But now they’ve morphed into what seems to be a constantly open line of communication, a day-long running conversation if you will, which we are expected to be constantly keeping up. After hours and hours of meaningless, forced messages and conversations, how could we not get sick of each other? I used to think my dad was ridiculous for refusing to get a cell phone. Now I’m certain he’s one of the smartest men I know.