'Common sense' advice to halt smartphone distraction may actually be misguided:
Telling people to turn their smartphones off, or set them on silent as a strategy to ease distractions or avoid addictive internet behaviors may backfire on some folks, according to Penn State researchers.
In a study, the researchers report that people checked their phones more often when their devices were in silent mode. They added that those who scored high in "Fear-of-Missing-Out" and "Need-to-Belong" personality tests checked their phones even more when silencing them and, in some cases, stayed on phones longer.
"The general, commonsensical approach to overcoming addiction or any kind of substance overuse or dependency is by cutting back on that substance," said Sundar, who is also an affiliate of Penn State's Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. "The industry approach to curbing smartphone overuse has generally been to try and figure out ways to cut off your access to phone, or to reduce the number of notifications or to give you the option of turning off the sound. While these are commonsensical approaches, we really do not know if they are psychologically effective. This seems to be one of those instances when cutting back can actually backfire or boomerang."
[...] People with high levels of FoMO checked their phones about 50 times a day when the vibration signal was on. In silent mode, though, the number of checks soared to about 120 checks a day for those participants. The researchers also found that people with high levels of FoMO stayed on phones significantly longer if their phones were in silent mode.
People with high levels of the Need-to-Belong trait did not pick up their phone more when their phones were in silent mode, however they did stay on phones longer if their phones were either on silent or vibration-only mode.
"Imagine, in class, the instructor tells the students to turn off their phones, we think that now everyone is paying attention to the instructor," said Sundar. "But, what our research is the opposite, in that they are preoccupied thinking about all the things that they're missing, so it might be even more distracting."
Journal Reference:
MengqiLiao and S. ShyamSundar, Sound of silence: Does Muting Notifications Reduce Phone Use?, Comput Hum Behav, 134, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107338
[Ed's Comment: AC Friendly withdrawn. You can blame you-know-who for the spamming]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2022, @04:16AM (1 child)
Like fuck it does! I recently had to mute a txt msg exchange between two friends who "included" me in their conversation. A couple of rubes nattering away they were. Now that they've been muted I finally have some peace and quiet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2022, @04:21AM
You know after the fifth or sixth ping you were tempted to take just a little peek . . . .
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2022, @09:24AM (1 child)
Strange how this is taken. Silencing phones is not to keep the phone owners attention, it is to keep their exaggerated sense of self-importance from disturbing others. Turn off your damn ringer. If you want a vibra-gasm, OK, just keep it quiet. Have some social consideration.
Like masks: The masks are not to protect the wearers from infection, they are to protect the rest of us from being infected by the wearer, if their phone happens to ring in the middle of the lecture, debriefing, concert, or goddamed religious ceremony. What do not millennials understand about all this?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Tuesday July 05 2022, @11:25AM
It's not just the ringing which is the distraction to others. It's the dickheads who are constantly whipping out their phones (and fiddling with them in a way they must be fooling themselves into thinking is discrete) who disturb the class or social events like a formal dinner. The constant ducking down and fiddling is unacceptable and distracting to all. That it happens in the peripheral vision of most of the other students makes it only that much worse since people are much more sensitive to noticing movement when it happens on the edge of sight.
Tests are another matter. If the phone buzzes, shakes, rings, blinks, gets touched or moved, or is even looked at, then that participant's test is done. They set their pens down and take their paper to the front and hand it in, that second. One thing which can help is that some places have phone charger cubbyboards with locking shelves. When those are available, the phones all go there as people enter and stay for the duration of the class or exam, while in silent mode.
As for the psychological dependencies mentioned in the article, I took a very formal test a while back. At that time the proctor had everyone place each phone in its own plastic bag and then collected all the phones in their bags prior to starting and stored them out of the room for the duration of the testing. Who knows, maybe that was to scan or tamper with the phones, but my guess at the time was that having them out of the room would (mostly) keep the younger participants from staring at their phones just out of reach and thus spending their time jonesing instead of concentrating on the material.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2022, @10:41AM (3 children)
Students these days are spoiled and would benefit from the sort of discipline that was instilled into earlier generations. Rather than asking people to turn their smartphones off, professors should instead rap the student's knuckles with a steel ruler the first time their phone rings. The second time, hit them on the back of the neck. The third time, excommunicate them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 05 2022, @12:46PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 05 2022, @07:49PM (1 child)
Security frog-marching them out and not letting them back in tends to be effective. The offender may or may not learn from it, but they can go be disruptive somewhere else.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday July 06 2022, @11:55AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday July 05 2022, @12:15PM (4 children)
Where ever I go, it seems like I'm the only one who doesn't have my face buried in a stupid toy cell phone constantly checking whatever it is they check every few seconds.
What is it they do anyway? Oh look, their friend just took a huge dump! Their mother just sent them a reminder to buy those vitamin supplements she heard about on Facebook. They remembered to download the FREE weather app/malware and are checking for alerts every second to see if it is going to rain in the next five minutes. Oh, and more cat pictures!
Meanwhile, I'm about to run over their consumertard asses because they aren't looking where they are going.
Personally, I HATE being interrupted. The worst part of this shit is everyone expects me to act the same dumb way they do.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 05 2022, @12:51PM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:59AM (2 children)
My solution is a bit more extreme... I leave the damn phone at home!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday July 06 2022, @11:59AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday July 06 2022, @02:34PM
While I could cite a string of mechanical reasons why I don't cart the phone around with me, at root I just don't like being tied to it. (And lived enough years where there was no phone service at all that I just don't feel the compulsion.)
And the aging iPhone someone gift me makes it easy... it has the battery life of a mayfly, and half the time can't find the tower but works fine over wifi, so it lives permanently attached to its charger.. Behold my modern landline!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.