Mahesh Natarajan By Express News Service BENGALURU: Smartphones are so ubiquitous. People use their laptops and personal computers only when they need to type out large pieces or work on multiple documents, or when they have to work on software that is designed for such computers. All other connected life is on the phone, now that it operates with equal or greater computing power as compared to computers, and there is internet everywhere. Very few actually use their computers to access social media, dating sites, news or anything else that one gets around to on a daily basis unless they are on some kind of digital detox and are limiting their access to their mobile phones. More and more smartphones these days come with fingerprint and face scanners that can unlock the phone. Gone are the days when the only option was a complex pattern or a numerical pattern to lock a phone. Most people set the unlocking pattern to their thumbs or index fingers, and sometimes, just for convenience, store all their fingers as unlocking patterns on their phone. It makes sense if you think about it – what if a couple of fingers get hurt and are damaged, or in full masala movie style, you are in trouble and only your little finger can reach the phone! Jokes aside, smartphones and them being locked or unlocked is often a sticky issue with people in relationships. It is much more common to find people insisting that they have access to each other’s phones rather than have people who are quite okay that phones are each other’s private spaces and do not need to be accessed. Many take the halfway path where they ask for and get access (just for emergency’s sake) and give the same open-door policy to their partners. Some use their partner’s finger to unlock their phone when the partner is in deep sleep or not in a conscious state and adds their own into the security system, just so that they will have access, should there be need to have such access at all, and maybe not let the partner know at all because they want to avoid arguing over something that might never really happen. How people in relationships access each other’s phones becomes an issue. They want to see each other’s WhatsApp conversations, messenger and browsing history, etc. With people taking their phones to toilets and glued to the small screen, with wireless earphones on almost all the time, there is very little that others in the relationship get to know of one’s life unless there is an open sharing. Issues of consent, transparency, connection and so on have been key concerns in relationships. More than rechecking your phone’s security protocols, people need to talk about these issues with their partners, or risk them playing out on a screen very near you. The author is a counsellor with InnerSight.

Stay updated with all the Bangalore Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.