By Emily Murray

As technology evolves, so do our interactions with others. Before everyone had a smart phone, courtship consisted of calls to land line phones and love letters even before that. So now that we can communicate with our significant other with an easy text message are we helping or hurting the communication in our relationships?

A new study reveals we should perhaps text with caution.

This study was recently published in the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy. In order to gather the information for this, 276 men and women in relationships who were around 22 years of age were surveyed. To break down these relationships even further, 38% were considered “serious,” while 46% were engaged and 16% were married.

When questioned on their communications they all agreed that texting was part of how they kept in touch day to day when they weren’t together but it seems the type of messages that are most commonly sent can set the tone of the health of the relationship.

For instance, those who reported sending sweet, romantic and loving messages via text also said they had more satisfaction in their relationship. When looking at the patterns of texting for men, those who texted more frequently reported a generally lower level of satisfaction. While human behavior can only leave researches guessing why these actions take place, it’s believed that as men begin to pull away from a relationship they interact more often with technology rather than face to face communication.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, women who text frequently with their partner generally report greater feelings of satisfaction in their relationships. It appears women are more likely to try and talk out differences and build the connection through text messaging.

The bottom line of the study was that texting can be great in the beginning parts of a relationship but when it comes to the heavier parts of the relationship which require in depth communication, it’s better to nurture this part of the relationship face to face.