Your phone makes you less sharp even when it is switched off
In one experiment, simply having a silent, face-down phone on the desk lowered people's scores on memory and problem-solving tests.
Here is an experiment you can almost feel in your own day. Researchers at the University of Texas asked around 800 people to take tests of working memory and problem solving. Before starting, some were told to leave their phone in another room, some to keep it in a pocket or bag, and some to put it face down on the desk. Every phone was on silent.
The people whose phones were in another room did best. The people with the phone on the desk did worst, even though nobody touched it and nothing buzzed. The pattern was strongest in those who said they felt most dependent on their phones.
The researchers called it "brain drain". Part of your attention is quietly spent on not checking the phone, and that is attention you no longer have for the task in front of you. You don't notice it happening, which is the unsettling part. Most people in the study said the phone had not distracted them at all.
Try this - When you need to think, study or have a proper conversation, put the phone in another room. A drawer is second best. - Children doing homework will focus better with the phone outside the room, not face down beside the book. - At meals, leave phones off the table. It changes the conversation more than you'd expect. - Turn off every notification that isn't from a person. Most of them are from apps that want your attention for their own sake.
Where this comes from - Ward AF, Duke K, Gneezy A, Bos MW. Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2017.
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