Dr. Stephanie Bennett Shares with Students How to Reset Relationships

On April 8, Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA) Communication Professor Dr. Stephanie Bennett visited PBA's Communitas Club to share her expertise on how students can cultivate long-lasting relationships in a world that seems to be in a hurry to chase the next best thing. Bennett is the director of PBA's Wordship program which seeks to teach students the skills necessary to be able to verbally connect and uplift others.

The Communitas club aims to create opportunities for students to engage in conversations outside the classroom and is designed to help connect students through digital media alternatives. An example of this is their monthly physical newsletter, which includes devotions, news from PBA's Communication Department and details of the in-person events they host.

Relationships in the Now

At the event, Bennett shared her thoughts on how modern society and personal psychology may be working together to hurt people's chances of starting and maintaining romantic, platonic, and familial relationships.

This topic has been on Bennett's mind lately having just released her book, "Relationships on the Run: How to Grow Authentic Connections and Lasting Intimacy in a Hurried Culture." When Sunshine Tarpey, president of the Communitas Club and a PBA senior in communication, asked about the hardest part of writing her new book, Bennett answered that the project required her to be personally vulnerable. Vulnerability is something she identifies as essential for starting a connection.

"In order to find love, you have to risk your heart being broken," Bennett explained.

A Culture of Convenience

"It can be hard to find the courage and the time to be vulnerable with others," Bennett said. Through her work as a couple's counselor, she has seen this struggle many times. She describes how, increasingly, people around the world become subject to Continuous Partial Attention (CPA). CPA is the behavioral state of a person who is indefinitely multitasking. When an individual is demonstrating CPA, they are not fully present in their relationships; instead, they are going through the motions, so they will not have to sacrifice an ounce of productivity for the sake of connection.

"We are in a world where we try to fit our relationships into the cracks and crevices in our lives, only to find, at the end of the day, there are no cracks or crevices," Bennett said.

Lasting Love

Bennett responded to students' questions about the use of AI or the new financial or spatial burdens being placed on relationships by explaining that connections founded solely on convenience are almost impossible to maintain. Long-lasting intimacy is not found in selfish prioritization. She believes there is an incredibly outdated stigma surrounding the idea that relationships take work. Bennett instead tries to reframe the work that goes into relationships as personal growth for both partners.

"No love outside of agape, God's perfect love, is without its flaws," Bennett said. "However, there are parts of agape in all the other forms of love, such as eros, or romantic love."

She believes that while there's is no perfect recipe for achieving a level of agape in our interpersonal relationships, simple steps like putting down a cell phone and mastering small talk can be the beginning of intimacy in romantic partnerships and friendships. Bennett encouraged students to take the time in their busy schedules to foster meaningful connections and come into community with each other.

For more information about PBA's Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations department, visit here.