Do Smartphones Make Us Dumb? Their Presence Reduces Our Brain Power - Even When They're Off!
Technology is incredible - it improves our lives and makes them so much easier.
If you don't know something you can google it, if you are lost you can use your GPS navigation, and if you don't have cash you can pay with your phone.
But as amazing as technology is - it also has its downsides. It's easy to rely on it too much, and instead of improving our abilities, that can actually make us dumber.
A recent study from the University of Texas has shown that the presence of your smartphone is enough to reduce brain power - even when the phone is off.
As shocking as this may sound, it's true - simply knowing that your phone is within reach already has a "brain drain" effect on our cognitive abilities.
But now, let's look at the details of the study:
Experiment 1
The 800 study participants were sat down in front of a computer and asked to take a series of tests that require full concentration.
The tests were designed to measure the participant's cognitive capacity, their ability to process data at any given time.
The participants were randomly assigned in three groups: Some were asked to place their smartphones on the desk (face down), some were asked to put it in their bag or in their pocket (where they'd naturally put it) and the last group put their phones in a different room.
All phones were turned silent.
Results
The group who had their phones in a different room significantly had the best results.
Next were the ones who kept their phones in their bags, closely followed by the participants who had their phones on the desk.
This shows that the mere presence of a smartphone - even if it's face down and on silent - already reduces the cognitive capacity!
Even though the participants felt like they were focusing completely on the test, subsconsciously knowing that the smartphone was within reach impaired their cognitive functioning.
"We see a linear trend that suggests that as the smartphone becomes more noticeable, participants' available cognitive capacity decreases. Your conscious mind isn't thinking about your smartphone, but that process - the process of requiring yourself to not think about something - uses up some of your limited cognitive resources. It's a brain drain. It's not that participants were distracted because they were getting notifications on their phones - the mere presence of their smartphone was enough to reduce their cognitive capacity."-Adrian Ward, Co-Author of the study
Experiment 2
For the 2nd phase of the study, the researchers wanted to assess how a person's self-reported smartphone dependence could influence their cognitive capacity.
So first, the participants were asked to self-report how strongly they feel the need to have a smartphone to get through their everyday life.
Then they were given the same tests as the first group and were also asked to either put their smartphones on the desk (face up this time), in their bag or in a different room.
This time, some participants were also asked to turn off their phones completely.
Results
Those who were most dependent on their smartphones in everyday life performed worse than the others, but only when the phone was within reach on the desk or in their bags.
Interestingly, it seems like there is no difference between having the phone on or off, face up or face down on the desk.
Simply having it within sight was already enough to impair the person's focus because a part of their brain is actively working to not pick up the phone.
“Results from two experiments indicate that even when people are successful at maintaining sustained attention – as when avoiding the temptation to check their phones – the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity. Moreover, these cognitive costs are highest for those highest in smartphone dependence.”
Conclusion
The study results have shown that having our smartphones within sight (or reach) reduces our cognitive abilities significantly - especially for those with smartphone dependancy.
What's interesting is that it doesn't actually matter if the phone is on or off, if it's laying on a desk face up or face down - just merely knowing that it's there is already enough to reduce our focus.
The authors suggest that this is because a part of our brain is always actively avoiding to use or pick up the phone!
So next time you have to concentrate on a difficult task or get some work done: make sure to place your smartphone in a different room to maximize your productivity!
© Sirwinchester
That last gif...
I just posted an in depth look at the entire corrupt 'science' of wireless technology. The reality appears to be MUCH worse than almost anyone imagines.
I will take a look, yeah good post. lots of info I would say we need either more cable infrastructure, electromagnetic cages over most of the tech, or to just tune it properly.
A fair amount of evidence suggests that the inhumanely tuned frequencies were chosen deliberately.. so it looks like we need to maybe consider using cages of another kind for certain individuals!
well it would be hard, they do have a large number of "trained" individuals that follow orders, I've always thought it strange to give your self up for servitude :| strange world we are living in for sure.
I'd rather throw them out int the wild, fuck cages, let them feed some birds or lions, romans did enough public games, I'd rather have nature take it's course then have more games for show. People are starting to forget that games are for advancement and "proof of work" rather than for show.
Good post, there are many many dark and dirty "secrets" lying around and sadly most of them are waking the earth. Someone here advised me to watch "Unacknowledged (2017)" I just might.
Well the answer seems easy, this is military technology, given to civilians, no wonder they have no idea what they are doing, so we either train ourselves to be a bit more forward thinking than the next facebook scroll (half a second maybe) or just scrap 80% of our timesinks since we tend to spend most of the time being glued to a screen then wonder why our bodies are dying and why we have so many problems, while we have destroyed most of the natural environments around and we tend to stray from them more and more choosing mechanical and "dead" ways of living, like using what like half of the fuel reserves in what like 5 decades :D talk about greed :D this topic could be endless, life is pretty simple, we just don't live it, we would like to, but we are also scared and we like to hide that with layers and layers of "stuff" be it ideology or objects, even people.
To leave off on a better note, there is a song by Michael Jackson, Earth song, it's a pretty nice production and has stuck with me for a few years at least, I think people just need to spend some time getting a perspective on the past and future, realize how many possibilities there are and read into things, rather than overlook the simple and true meaning. Art used to mean something, now it's being weaponized like everything to produce cash cows.
The saddest part is that there are people running the world either with carrots or with sticks, at the end of the day people need to stop running the horse races. I've watched a video recently in fact here is the link, it's not exactly the same and last time I listened to the podcast I just didn't pay much attention since I know most of that, turns out I've missed some pints :)
https://steemit.com/freedom/@lifeworship/blockchains-and-not-chains
ending it here, now point for more "air"
Thanks for your considered comment here. Yes, moves were already made several times to arrest Tony Blair for war crimes by citizen's arrest and each time his private security teams just moved into intimidate and he just used BS to try to talk his way out of it. There needs to be a major change of (And creation of) heart before the collective human immune system will be empowered to clean up the mess (hmm, I will post on this exact subject next here).
"Unacknowledged" is worth watching, but you can also find a wealth of the same information (and more) in my own series on ET/UFO disclosure on Steemit. I have had 2 close up encounters with plasma vehicles and psychic contact too - so am well placed to understand the dynamics involved.
The carrot and stick analogy is on point and I wrote about that recently too because certain governments are attempting to blend exactly that with social network point scoring systems like steemit! Like a knife, every good idea can be used for good or bad!
i think through the usability of phones and pc's nowerdays people don't get the drive to dig into something. When i was about 8yrs i was blown away by burning music onto CD-R's and now i'm working in IT independently.
So glad that attention is being brought to this topic! I am definitely the first to admit that I would be lost most of the time without the GPS on my smartphone, but there is a huge presence of smartphones that I have seen in the workplace. In particular, in healthcare. I am currently a medical school student and my phone can at times seem to be my worst enemy. I loved how the research you discussed pointed out that your phone has to be in a different room- this is exactly what I have to do when I am studying! I don't seem to focus as well, even when it is zipped up in my backpack! I can see the utility in all of the apps that are made to help people in health care, but I am worried people may stop thinking. Maybe I'm just old school, but when it comes down to work or an individual's health, I want to be sure of the course of action without having to rely on a smartphone! Hopefully we can all start working out our brains more, rather than our thumbs!
That is crazy even when the phone is off we reduce brain power lucky I lost my phone 3 weeks ago I think my next phone will be a old nokia lol thanks for this very interesting but shocking post :)
True! Smartphone are a big distraction, most peopel spend too much time with them
This actually makes a lot of sense. Even if the phone is off, we'd want to subconsciously turn it on and go through it.
We've probably been so conditioned at this point that if we hear a noise, we'll think it's our phone ringing or vibrating XD
Great post!
I agree. Smart phones don't make us dumb. They simply shorten our attention span and decrease our ability to focus.
soooo we don't get dumber we just get worse at being smart :D it's a distraction heaven. Let's check this, that and the other .. 5 hours later, what do you remember out of the 3000 pages you've viewed, it's a way to rest the brain, but with all the adds and clickbait, you shouldn't be resting while going over those places in the internet.
Shiny thing!
You may want to check this out which was released today
I think we will need to come to a point where we demand neutral technologies. Or at least tech where we know what the AI in the product is pushing us to do.
@sirwinchesterc- I believe these studies because I jave personally experienced how distracting my cells phone could be during work. It became almost an addiction to check updates of various things every few minutes. I would feel naked and uncomfortable if my phone was not in my hand or in my sight. My performance was getting affected.. I had to work hard and break the habit. Then my performance became very good again. Thanks for sharing this research and raising awareness about cell phones affecting productivity and performance. Upvoted.
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