23 ms·

The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)

874 points by wtracy 6y ago

jessaustin 6y ago
I know a couple of old guys who will love this.
- Shared404 6y ago
  Old guys know stuff. Many times, it's useful stuff other's have forgotten.
  - jupp0r 6y ago
    I agree with you and GP at the same time.
    - Shared404 6y ago
      Both are sides of the same coin. I just figured I'd bring up the other side.
      - jessaustin 6y ago
        Frankly I don't see any disagreement. I didn't say "old guys" as an epithet. They call themselves that...
        nobody9999 6y ago
        >Frankly I don't see any disagreement. I didn't say "old guys" as an epithet. They call themselves that... As an older (never old! Okay not for another ten years or so. :) ) guy, I can say that while I do have a smartphone, I primarily use it as a (gasp) phone. I also do SMS (Signal is preferred, but many folks aren't security conscious) and read email. I don't use my phone for anything that has or could have financial implications -- phones just aren't secure enough for that. What's more, after being an early adopter of social media (FB in 2004), I gave it up years ago because the business model was clearly exploitative and I wanted no part of it anymore. Besides, as an IT/InfoSec professional, I spend way too much time looking at screens anyway and don't need to be constantly looking at my phone too. Heck, I just went and ran a few errands and didn't even bring the damn thing with me. I'd point out that it wasn't very long ago that few people had mobile devices. In fact, when I was a child, few people even had (now obsolete) answering machines in their homes. And wonder of wonders, we managed to do just fine. Sure, it's useful to have a device that allows me to look up directions or get information about someplace I may be going, or let others know if I need to change plans or similar stuff. But that's just convenience, not a necessity. I've been working with, designing and implementing internetworking solutions since ~1990, most of that time as a paid professional, so I'm not exactly a Luddite either. In fact, I'm more technical than most younger people. And because I've been doing InfoSec for decades, I'm aware of the risks, as well as the benefits of being constantly connected. IMHO, unless there's some important reason to be tethered to one's device (a family member's health, on-call duties, etc.) the risks often outweigh the benefits. Now get off my lawn! Edit: Added context WRT convenience vs. necessity
ardillamorris 6y ago
I get it - the act of staying away from your phone is taking up cognitive capacity. And if you're addicted, the constant reminder to check also takes cognitive capacity. Sex is no different - if you're single, or married and you want more sex than your significant other - believe me, sex will reduce your available cognitive capacity. The constant thought of how do I get more of it (single or married) I'm sure does more than your smartphone and probably the smartphone is just a tool to the idea of getting more sex.
- bkeating 6y ago
  Well said. We need more analogies like this.
- bobthechef 6y ago
  Managing the appetites requires self-denial. In the case of married couples, the spouse has a moral obligation to satisfy the other sexually within moral and reasonable limits (i.e., sexual abuse or objectification of the other is never admissible). Phone addiction is in this sense easier. It can also be managed through abstinence or even eliminated cold turkey if you wish because we have no intrinsic desire for phone use, but we do have an intrinsic desire for sex. And yeah, the passions, when we are ruled by them instead of ruling over them, can darken our minds and enslave us. (In your example, the "daughters of lust" are apropos.) A man has as many masters as he has vices.
  - nobody9999 6y ago
    >In the case of married couples, the spouse has a moral obligation to satisfy the other sexually within moral and reasonable limits (i.e., sexual abuse or objectification of the other is never admissible). I can't agree with those statements. No one, not your spouse, not your significant other and not anyone else is obliged to provide sexual satisfaction to you or anyone else. What's more, while consent is never optional, pleasing one's partner should be a joy, and if your partner desires objectification or even what you (note that what you think and believe doesn't apply to everyone else) term "sexual abuse," that's between consenting adults. Your judgement as to what is "moral" is an individual judgement that applies to you. There are more things (as well as kinks and fetishes) in earth and heaven than are dreamt of in your philosophy. And just so it's crystal clear, consent is never optional and no one, regardless of relationship status is obligated to provide sexual satisfaction to anyone.
gooseus 6y ago
I think this needs a (2017), here is a link to a PDF - https://rady.ucsd.edu/docs/faculty/aGneezy/Published%20Papers/BrainDrain_Published.email.pdf https://rady.ucsd.edu/docs/faculty/aGneezy/Published%20Paper...
- throwaway413 6y ago
  Much appreciated!
- sbierwagen 6y ago
  To save a click: >Five hundred forty-eight undergraduates participated for course credit. [...] Our final sample consisted of 520 smartphone users. 520 isn't as bad as I was expecting, but it's still an order of magnitude away from being meaningful. And, obviously, a study population consisting only of students attending the same class is maybe going to be slightly biased.
omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
I feel like this applies to just about anything that compels us to pay attention to it (TV, video games, etc...), albeit in different ways depending on the media.
- JJMcJ 6y ago
  Go to laundromat. Bring book, this time I'm going to get some reading done. Oooh, moldy golf tournament (or soap opera) on TV. And there goes 90 minutes.
  - ben_w 6y ago
    For the same reason, my ex always avoided food places with TVs in them whenever she could.
    - justinlloyd 6y ago
      I hate going to restaurants or bars with friends/colleagues/family where the bar or restaurant has a TV showing whatever it is showing. Everyone inevitably gravitates to watching the TV rather than having a conversation. I can have dinner in front of a TV at home.
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    Last week when I was in a hospital waiting room, I knocked out A Brief History of Time in one sitting. That thing's been on my bookshelf for at least ten years untouched. I'm not sure it significantly enhanced my life (though it helped my understanding of the fabric of the universe, I guess?), but it felt like an accomplishment.
    - Jtsummers 6y ago
      I spent a good chunk of the last few years in physical therapy. Before sessions in the waiting room, and during the period of the session where they're applying heat/cooling or electricity I got a lot of reading done. I had a rule, broken recently and I need to restore it, of no electronics in my sitting room. Made it a very productive reading area as well. No laptop, tablet, kindle [0], or phone. At most I listened to music in it. Part of the problem was I started reading some programming books and wanted to code up things along with the text (like working through math exercises while reading a math book). I need to start handwriting the code and type it up at the desk later. [0] It's a Kindle Fire in my case. Which offers some of the same distractions, despite being lower power, as a tablet or phone. I did use it in there when I was actually reading on it sometimes. But it's a risk.
bigdict 6y ago
I keep my smartphone in a different room when I’m working from home. When it’s on my desk, even covering it with a piece of paper helps.
nerdponx 6y ago
I wonder if this has implications for our understanding of addiction more generally in humans.
perlgod 6y ago
Getting rid of my smartphone was without a doubt the most positive thing I ever did for myself. I'm sure some people have the self-control to use it sparingly. But for me, not having to constantly fight the urge to check my always-connected magic pocket internet portal has freed up a huge amount of my mental willpower, which I can now redirect to other more important things. Now that everything is closed, I don't even miss having the convenience of Uber/Google Maps. Additionally, without social media, I remain blissfully unaware of whatever corona hysteria or political drama is consuming the minds of my peers. These devices have a veritable legion of engineers working to make the smartphone experience as addictive as possible. For some people, the only winning move it not to play.
- geocrasher 6y ago
  I get the same thing by A) not watching the news B) turning off notifications for almost all apps C) the real magic key to keeping control of your smart phone, instead of letting it control you is <buzz> <buzz> hang on Hello? Look I'm right in the middle of something I'll... yeah. I know I ... I KNOW. Look, I gotta go. Anyway, as I was saying... uh... well anyway. Phones suck.
  - r00fus 6y ago
    I am very brutal in ignoring calls and sending SMS text replies to known IDs that might have something urgent. I know the prefix is for all of my key numbers like kids schools, hospitals and simply don’t pick up if the prefix is not right.
  - DiffEq 6y ago
    I have had my office phone on Do Not Disturb for 5 years and my cell phone has all notifications turned off and the ringer is set to off. The only time i turn it on is if I am expecting a call - which is hardly ever. Same with my PC - no notifications...it helps a great deal to keep the tool a tool instead of letting it become your master.
    - gadabout 6y ago
germinalphrase 6y ago
As a teacher of high schoolers, I believe this.
ed25519FUUU 6y ago
I was just remarking the other day while doing my morning constitutional that I can't remember what I used to do while sitting on the john when I didn't have a cell phone. I honestly couldn't remember. Probably just sit quietly and think and be bored. I wonder if boredom is good for us. Our brains probably need time not to be engaged with our eyes do mental housecleaning. Meditation is good but it's not the same as sitting and being bored.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  Read the ingredients on a shampoo bottle
  - ed25519FUUU 6y ago
    WOW flashback! I absolutely remember doing that, and wondering what "shea butter" was (obviously I couldn't quickly google it).
- shard 6y ago
  You don't leave a book in the bathroom? I have gotten through so many books in my to-read list just by leaving it in the bathroom. It takes very little mental effort to not bring a smartphone to the john when there is a book waiting, at least for me.
- bittercynic 6y ago
  Maybe boredom is beneficial because it can drive you to do something productive, and then the relief from boredom is coupled to the productivity. The "Opponent process theory"[0] really rings true for me, and I think could be used to argue that experiencing boredom has some benefits. [0] https://gettingstronger.org/2010/05/opponent-process-theory/ https://gettingstronger.org/2010/05/opponent-process-theory/
- nbap 6y ago
  Books and magazines
- justinlloyd 6y ago
rajeshmr 6y ago
Quitting smartphone has been incredible for me and i don't miss it at all. :)
- ChrisCinelli 6y ago
  Tell us more.
- rvz 6y ago
  Good job. The same companies are now trying to do the same thing but with Smartwatches that tell the time and... - More Notifications - Messaging - Calling - Internet - GPS - Plays music, video and podcasts + Health and Fitness (Can't disagree with that one) and finally the worst saved until last... - Apps The industry is doing it all over again with the smartphone but now it will be all on your wrist, but marketed cleverly as a 'Health and Fitness device'.
  - takeda 6y ago
    I actually liked how Pebble approached it, it was a watch first with some smart functionality. It so sad that they went out of business, because they made exactly what I was looking in a smart watch.
  - mkskm 6y ago
    Have you tried the Apple Watch? I don't find it addictive at all. On the contrary, it's significantly reduced my phone use and nearly eliminated the need for taking my phone when going out if not for missing some essential functionality (e.g. Lyft/Uber, offline maps, an affordable cell plan).
    - rashkov 6y ago
      How about with an LTE model? I’m thinking that with a pair of AirPods and an LTE Apple Watch, I may be able to leave the phone at home while still being able to text, make phone calls, get directions, and even order a taxi. Maybe even stream some music. Anyone with experience doing this?
joshe 6y ago
"Journal of the Association for Consumer Research" and vague implied effects on mental state both pretty good indicators that this will not replicate. About half of psychology papers don't replicate anyway, the field has been doing some house cleaning, which is awesome, but needs to do a lot more. Oh you can add that all the researchers are marketing professors at business schools (one now at Snap). Good job on the marketing though, perfectly designed to get headlines. https://www.colorado.edu/business/adrian-f-ward https://www.colorado.edu/business/adrian-f-ward https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Duke https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/Fa... https://rady.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/ayelet-gneezy/ https://rady.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/ayelet-gneezy/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartenbos/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartenbos/
- socalnate1 6y ago
  I find this response overly dismissive. Did you read the paper or just the abstract? Dismissing the work of marketing professors out of hand isn't the right approach. What if this is one of the half of psychology papers that do replicate?
  - tqi 6y ago
    https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/scientists-can-collectively-sense-which-psychology-studies-are-weak/568630/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/scientis... While I definitely agree that one shouldn't be overly dismissive without reading the underlying paper, the abstract can actually be surprisingly predictive. "Beyond statistical issues, it strikes me that several of the studies that didn’t replicate have another quality in common: newsworthiness. They reported cute, attention-grabbing, whoa-if-true results that conform to the biases of at least some parts of society. One purportedly showed that reading literary fiction improves our ability to understand other people’s beliefs and desires. Another said that thinking analytically weakens belief in religion. Yet another said that people who think about computers are worse at recalling old information—a phenomenon that the authors billed as “the Google effect.” All of these were widely covered in the media."
  - mjburgess 6y ago
justizin 6y ago
somehow this is not surprising at all. :/
agumonkey 6y ago
I can personally say the same for internet. When my ISP goes down my brain unfold 2x and time slows down.
charlesju 6y ago
One trick I've been doing recently is I've reduced my cell phone internet plan to a monthly cap with rollover. And then I only turn on my cell internet when I really need it for something. This has changed my default behavior pattern outside to disconnect from the internet, and that has let me feel a lot more present in whatever I'm doing.
jupp0r 6y ago
I came here to criticize the clickbait title only to find out that the clickbait title is on the actual paper as well! Of course the "presence" of smart phones cannot reduce cognitive capacity, it's the things we've learned to associate with smart phones (if it's true at all).
hk__2 6y ago
This should be suffixed with "(2017)"
Nbox9 6y ago
Do you believe this effect applies to you? If not, why. If you believe in this effect, and still keep a smartphone, why?
- mym1990 6y ago
  Just like many addictions, just because you know the negative side-effects doesn't mean you are willing to give up the activity. Plenty of people know how bad fast food or smoking can be, but the trade off of feeling good while doing it is too good to pass up. A lot of times I find myself picking up the phone to message one person, but I end up on a 15 minute journey scrolling through whatever social media I am on and almost forget my initial intention. Disciple is obviously a big factor here. I think this can be managed without totally getting rid of your smartphone. Like the saying goes: "out of sight, out of mind". Everyone's mileage will vary though, just my 2c
phobosanomaly 6y ago
Perhaps it's functioning as a substitute for the constant social interaction that was once a facet of living in a tribal society. We always had someone near us we were chatting with, but now that we have eliminated that level of social connection in the modern social environment, we have replaced it with the smartphone. It may just be satisfying a hardwired biological need for constant chit-chat. If you look at it that way, as a coping technique for loneliness, it doesn't seem too bad.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  Social Media isn't a substitute for healthy social interaction which becomes very evident when one looks at the psychological outcomes of people who use it heavily, particular say, teenage girls. Most social media interaction isn't genuine conversation between peers but a sort of status contest in which people pull up façades and present idealised versions of themselves, mostly strongly influenced by whatever is trending within society at large. An important finding of loneliness research has repeatedly been that loneliness is not equivalent to merely not being in contact with others. One can be alone but not lonely, and one can be lonely while superficially in contact with others.
  - phobosanomaly 6y ago
    Sure, I'm not suggesting that it's an ideal, or adequate substitute, but rather that it may function as a coping technique. A temporary band-aid. In the absence of genuine conversation or a close social relationship, this may be a stop-gap. Like Wilson in Castaway. It's a crutch to get someone through the long, lonely times.
  - jdashg 6y ago
    Most in-person social interaction is ingenuine in the same ways, but it's easier to be less genuine (more fake) over low bandwidth media like text. (And actually it's much harder to be genuine at low bandwidth, too)
  - demosito666 6y ago
    > Most social media interaction isn't genuine conversation between peers but a sort of status contest But exactly the same is true for regular communications, especially for teenagers, whose whole life is making impression on their peers.
balola 6y ago
I guess using a really old model helps avoid it.
_def 6y ago
I recently took a camping trip with some friends (one weekend) and left my phone at home. Except for not knowing which time it is, it was a very positive experience.
- justinlloyd 6y ago
  "What time is it?" If I am awake it is after 9:30AM but before 4AM. If I am asleep it is after 4AM but before 9:30AM. Only my dog cares about the any other time such as: time for a walk. time for breakfast. time for a nap. time for dinner. time for another walk. :-)
rland 6y ago
> Participants in the “desk” condition left mostof their belongings in the lobby but took their phones into the testing room “for use in a later study;” once in the testing room, they were instructed to place their phones facedown in a designated location on their desks. Yeah, color me skeptical. You're in a study currently, and you're asked to place your phone on your desk for a later study. This is quite different from just having your phone around, because you're basically thinking about 'phones' and 'studies' together while you're in the study. That's very different from 'mere presence' in my mind.
- Dumblydorr 6y ago
  Isn't that what we constantly do with our phones: keep them around just in case, for when we inevitably get a text or call or think of something to text or get the urge?
bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago
I wonder just how much worse it is if you have two phones? One for work use and one for personal use.
justinlloyd 6y ago
I lack a lot of self-control in many areas of my life. Except when it comes to my smartphone which for me is a tool rather than an entertainment device. Most of my day the phone is in DnD/flipped over on the second desk in my office and not within arm's reach. I don't know how much having the device in the same room as me is a "cognitive capacity reducer" but for the most part, my smartphone is a forgotten device except for when I need to use it for something. My needs in a smartphone are: Maps & navigation. Local business lookup. Bank account. Audible. Camera. Password manager. Calculator. Grocery shopping list. Recipe book for when at the grocery store. Authenticator. Uber. Check email. SMS. Occasional voice call. All audible notifications except for alarms and calendar are disabled. All visual notifications are disabled except for SMS. I get conversation starter SMS messages once, maybe twice a month, at most. I don't even have games & apps that I worked on installed on my device. I just keep shortcuts to videos of them on the device in case I need to show them off. I don't know if this is a normal behaviour for people that have smartphones. I do see an awful lot of people totally engrossed in their devices to the exclusion of all others. I also see, anecdotally, some people, software developer colleagues, who don't get anything more than a few minutes before the smartphone cheeps or chirps with a new notification or distraction. I've actually thought about getting rid of my oh-so-delicate-dont-ever-drop-it smartphone and just going back to a flip phone, though I'd miss the camera. I take a lot of pictures of things for reference, e.g. disassembling a piece of electronics or a piece of furniture I want to copy.
- godshatter 6y ago
  I have a fairly nice smart phone, and I use it for phone calls, text messages, 2FA, e-books, taking pictures, checking the weather forecast, and as a clock/timer/alarm. In a pinch I'll look something up or access my bank account, but very rarely. I'm in front of my desktop computer 10 to 12 hours a day, if I need to search for something on the web I'll do it then. If I want to play a game, I'll play it on my expensive desktop computer. If I'm going on a trip I'll bring my laptop. I must be in the minority, but the size and ergonomics of the phone make it a last-resort sort of device for me despite the fact that it looks like a futuristic sci-fi device.
  - 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
hindsightbias 6y ago
“Point of View is worth 80 IQ points.” — Alan Kay Your phone gates yor viewpoint.
tester756 6y ago
I almost never used smartphone and I'm in early 20s I just know I'd spend way too much time on surfing the net. It's not hard but sometimes I worry that some situation will occur where access to the internet would really help
_bramses 6y ago
I actually use two phones. One is an old one I planned on recycling, but now I use it as my "focus" phone. The only apps on it are: Forest, Spotify, Kindle, and the ones Apple won't let me remove. When I'm working I put my main driver phone in another room entirely. This strategy has been doing wonders for my focus, and I still get to jam to my favorite tunes while working.
crazygringo 6y ago
First of all, with the caveat that, as is so common with psych studies, this was performed on undergraduates only. There is no reason to assume that this would necessarily extend to a 30-year-old mother, a 40-year business executive, etc. (To the contrary, one could also imagine that having their phone on them increased their capacity to think about other things, with the peace of mind that they can get things done efficiently.) But secondly, the headline to the paper "reduces available cognitive capacity", while written to sound bad, isn't obviously bad at all. Your overall cognitive capacity isn't reduced -- it's just some is being taken up by thinking about your phone. One hypothesis could be that if you're able to be reached, then you spend time worrying about the things people will be reaching you for -- if you've sent that e-mail, if you've finished that report, if you've decided whether or not to go to that event. That these are things you have to figure out or do anyways, and if you're not worrying about them now, you'll still have to later. Yes, removing the smartphone lets you relax for now, but that's just temporary. Otherwise it might be happening later over dinner instead. What would be more interesting would be to find variance in the data -- which participants had reduced cognitive capacity and which didn't -- and then correlate that with other reported differences, such as their stress levels, to-do's, obligations, etc. I'm quite sure the answer isn't as simple as "smartphones make us dumb", but closer to the truth that in being instantly connected to other people, that's something our brain is busy managing. But you know what? That may very well be a net benefit -- that being connected allows us to achieve our goals better, more, faster. That the cognitive capcity it's using is a good use.
- skratlo 6y ago
  What goals? So far those goals seem to be related to planet destruction via excessive consumption. Slowing down is what can save us from extinction.
  - crazygringo 6y ago
    Well, obviously yes if you're a cynic and think our goal is to destroy the planet, then that. But that seems... extreme. Conversely, if you're optimistic, then you might imagine that all the people trying to save the planet are using the coordination and information that cellphones enable to gain more influence and achieve that. Five hundred years ago, I'm sure people made the same arguments about books -- that they kept our concentration from the immediate present, and could be used to achieve bad things. I'm pretty sure books turned out to be a net positive. I feel the same way about cell phones.
chadlavi 6y ago
Not to brag, but I'm often able to maintain low levels of cognitive ability even while my phone is stowed away.
- mym1990 6y ago
  This is the content I need on a Friday afternoon.
- mirekrusin 6y ago
  Pro tip: if you feeling smart, dig in your nose, works wonders.
  - cmauniada 6y ago
    Is it weird that I was doing that as I read your comment?
    - jjgreen 6y ago
      and you replied, so eew, your keyboard ...
      - GreenWatermelon 6y ago
        Naaah, I keep tissues nearby. Gotta maintain a clean nose at all times.
      - efreak 6y ago
        Who said anything about a keyboard? We're using phones here, remember?
- erikpukinskis 6y ago
  You’re a better man than me.
didibus 6y ago
I want a smartphone that only has useful apps and nothing else. I want it to have SMS and Phone, Google Maps, Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, and such. But I don't want social media, I don't want news, I don't want a browser, I don't want email, etc.
- dgarrett 6y ago
  Apple Watch with LTE mostly fulfills this. And the screen is so small that it’s not worth it to port more addictive apps.
  - didibus 6y ago
    Hum... I thought about that, but you need an iPhone to link it too. If I could just by the watch I'd do it!
  - mkskm 6y ago
    I'm surprised Lyft/Uber hasn't been brought back yet. It would be extremely useful to have on hand now with the cellular model.
    - dgarrett 6y ago
      Uber is still on WatchOS and it works independently with LTE: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/uber-request-a-ride/id368677368#?platform=appleWatch https://apps.apple.com/us/app/uber-request-a-ride/id36867736...
- corytheboyd 6y ago
  What's wrong with just not downloading applications you do not want to use? You could make the argument against iOS that you can't delete some default applications but... just don't use them.
- takeda 6y ago
  At least with android you can disable apps (even those that are built in). Of course you need a discipline to not enable them back.
takeda 6y ago
Is there a way to access the paper without the subscription?
dagaci 6y ago
Unable to read past the abstract here, so I'm guessing that the the mere presence of the smartphone causes an unconscious distraction because the phone might "do something". Is it possible the that simply switching off the device will eliminate the distraction and impact on attention?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Terretta 6y ago
Turn off all notifications. Turn off all badges. Change default text tone and ring tone to silence (make or purchase a ringtone of silence). Set custom ring tone for your partner or other key people (you will always be happy to be interrupted by) to whatever sound you would want in emergency. At this point, only those you would welcome interruption from can get your attention. For meetings, toggle phone to silent, so even the custom ring people won’t make noise. If you “must” be reachable in real time for work, consider scheduling DND for all hours outside work hours. You can, on a contact by contact basis, designate individuals as able to dial through DND for emergencies.
corytheboyd 6y ago
We got to smart phones for a reason. Keep your phone. Use services through a web browser instead of standalone applications, then delete said applications. Turn off notifications for remaining applications that do not warrant the urgency of push notifications. Live your life.
m0zg 6y ago
More broadly, I think the mere availability of mindless entertainment reduces one's ability to do anything else. I observe this in myself and others. In order to willingly do useful things, I need to be bored. That's when I feel a need to do something, and if that "something" is not Instagram or YouTube, I go for the more salient things. So for me boredom is a very useful state to be in. If I can't get bored (if entertainment is immediately available) I will not do anything useful at all. I have to make a conscious decision to not access entertainment during the day in order to get anything done. Fortunately I can do that without much of a drain on my willpower reserves. But my son (and his peers) grew up in a world where everyone has Internet at all times, and the problem is more severe there. I'm trying to convince him that the way he's doing things now (basically 8 hours of YouTube and games a day, and lots of missing homework) will cause much regret in the future and will lead to a much worse lifestyle. So far I have failed to convince him of that though.
- jessemcbride 6y ago
  That's a great observation. We chase the noise all the time, but what would happen if we let ourselves be bored instead?
  - m0zg 6y ago
    Another observation is, boredom (at least for me) is a necessary pre-requisite for thinking deeply about things. I've noticed this years ago when I was at Google. When a hard problem would arise (which was nearly every day), I'd go for a long walk outside, leaving my phone on my desk. By the end of the walk, I'd usually either have a solution, or a viable start of a solution. A lot of good work was done on those walks.
    - non-entity 6y ago
      A few weeks ago, my power went out and my phone was nearly dead, so I let it sit for the time. In the time I had se thing id been working on "click" while just pacing around the apartment.
- 6y ago
ChrisCinelli 6y ago
I used to be addicted to my laptops. I used to over-work and when I was not working I was reading a lot of articles and spending time on news and some social networks. Even if I am selective with who I add as friends and follow, it is a lot of time that does not have good ROI. It was pretty much no stop activity since I woke up to when I was going to sleep. I stopped completely using computers except for work. It has been pretty hard transition. What happened is that I shifted to use a lot more my smartphone. I tried to keep it in airplane mode or turn off the data for most of the time. I also tried to have different devices for different activities. Switching to a dumb phone seems extreme but I am wondering if it is the final solution.
- defnotashton2 6y ago
  I'm in the same boat.
slothtrop 6y ago
New hot take: I'm addicted to my laptop. The phone barely registers in terms of interest because I work on my laptop anyway, which is less cumbersome to navigate. Notwithstanding the need to separate work from leisure life, much of leisure is just attached to this device. Even the less consumptive activities, like writing or playing music, benefit from it. And anything to do with innovation or research is absolutely tied to it. This has been amplified somewhat owing to the pandemic, keeping me from activities out-in-the-world, but even before it all happened I merely had the gym and the odd outing to the coffee shop on the regular, and weekly/bi-weekly outings with friends. It's a mechanical issue. By which I mean, I enjoy research at leisure and relatively solitary activities, but at the same time I want to pull away from being in front of a screen; it hasn't to do with consumption versus creativity or challenge. I try to remedy this with scheduled walks, and enough social time. Historically I imagine a person like myself would just be stuck in front of books instead, which I do also, but so much info can be gleaned from the web particularly research papers. EDIT: this concerns me more-so now as we'll be trying for a kid, and I'd like to lead by example. What I'd like to see in the future is AR tech that rewards mobility and in-person interaction, creating collaborative spaces anywhere. That may seem like more of the same problem, but the marriage with technology will only deepen, so it's up to us to set the terms.
- csallen 6y ago
  Same here. I've been addicted to my laptop for years, and can go days without looking at my phone. For the same reason: everything is on my laptop. Work, movies, books, chats with friends, my podcast, research, etc. And I have the same remedies, too: schedule things to just get myself out of the house.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ehnto 6y ago
  I am right there with you. I kicked the phone addiction in various ways, but I really like to work on personal projects and they're all on the computer, much like my work, so I'm always on my computer. I have a few tricks. I have a work laptop and a gaming computer, and I do all my personal work on the gaming computer. That helps separate the two. I have a workspace which gets me out of the house and keeps me focused while at work, so I can get it done quicker and ultimately spend less time on the computer. I also have a few outdoors hobbies, and a few indoors hobbies that are away from the computer. But of course I can't make progress on my computer projects off the computer, so that's still a conundrum I can't solve. I am at the point where I wonder if maybe I should work outdoors or offline, in order to regain my online time. But I'm not sure where to take that.
atarian 6y ago
That's a funny way of saying "smartphones are distracting"..
anthk 6y ago
- Use ed as a text editor - go back to usenet with slrn. Less noise, a slower pace - get gamebooks - use youtube-dl, listen to media offline - code or write a book, stop consuming and sharing
firstSpeaker 6y ago
Anyone has access to the source of the article? Aka, the full text/PDF to share it?
- takeda 6y ago
  Had the same question, looks like here's a link[1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24519880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24519880
dang 6y ago
Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967
zaidf 6y ago
I can vouch for this :) From Jan to March (when covid hit), I started leaving my phone at work on Fridays. People would ask me "why not just leave it in another room or in your bag at home?" and I would say "it is not the same!". Indeed, the mere knowledge that I have the phone within reach was noticeably more distracting than knowing it was a mile away.
ChrisCinelli 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_technology
kashyapc 6y ago
Many here might know this, but worth mentioning again: A simple but underrated remedy to reduce the colourful appeal of a "smartphone" is to put it in black-and-white mode (i.e. gray scale). On Android you can do it this way: 'Developer options' --> 'Simulate color space' --> 'Monochromacy' I couple that with: + Turning off all notifications. + I don't use any of the run-of-the-mill social media for about 7 years. + Most of my serious reading is largely via old-fashioned books. All of the above makes it for a damn calm device.
- barbarr 6y ago
  Tried the grayscale thing for a couple months. I primarily consume text on the internet, so it didn't do anything for me.
- mkskm 6y ago
  This helps except that it needs to be turned off frequently for viewing and taking photos. It would be great if there were something like the smart invert setting for grayscale but I doubt that will ever happen.
  - ed312 6y ago
    On iOS you can bind the accessibility shortcut to toggle this mode (triple click the lock button).
ezekiel68 6y ago
I find the majority of responses to these published findings to be fascinating. It's like when we learned in the past few years that humans only have a finite capacity for willpower within a given (short) timeframe. The near universal reaction among my intelligent friends was something like, "Well, I'm sure that's true for all those OTHER people..." Disclosure: My smartphone (currently) remains by my side. But this has got me thinking about the dilemma.
- ajkjk 6y ago
  That conclusion about willpower is quite suspect, fyi. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion.
mtalantikite 6y ago
Lately I’ve just been completely powering off my phone and leaving it in another room while I’m coding. Not that it ever was much of a problem for me, but I’ve really been enjoying one less (massive) distraction.
darosati 6y ago
https://scite.ai/reports/brain-drain-the-mere-presence-2NEepVn https://scite.ai/reports/brain-drain-the-mere-presence-2NEep... Interesting support for this article
nbzso 6y ago
Just sharing my approach. Phone is for calls and short messages, banking apps. After 6pm I reply only for close friends/family. No gaming. No movies. No tv. Old Ipad Air for casual browsing/rss. Work computer is only for work. Different machine is research and learning. Book reading on e-reader and paper. Drinking lot of water, active breaks every 30 minutes. When I feel that I have reached my cognitive daily peak - I stop everything and focus on relaxation. Never been so happy and productive in my life:)
- achempion 6y ago
  I mostly doing the same except my rss in emacs and ipad for reading. Would you mind elaborate about relaxation because I feel it's so easy to start browsing HN instead of getting proper rest.
RIMR 6y ago
This is reinforcing my theory that the ideal mobility solution is a limited-feature cell phone primarily used for messaging and calls, and a full-featured tablet that you have to keep in a bag, plus a bunch of accessories that tie everything together. Smartphones are inconvenient in size and don't fit in pockets. There's no great solution for running with a phone. They're fragile and heavy making them easy to break when dropped. They act as a constant attention drain alerting you to every tiny thing that happens. They have terrible battery life. You could go back to having a flip/candybar/slider phone with multiple days of battery life on a single charge that can use all of your messaging services and make calls. Add a few Uber shortcuts, a media controller, and a nice camera and you have the perfect pocket companion. You could have a nice tablet for everything else like social media, multimedia, games, and streaming, - even one that is functionally a laptop if you're going to need a bag for it. Let it run in a low power mode so that it can drive streaming music to your bluetooth headset and you can use your cell phone as a basic media remote. Basically run the iPhone/Apple Watch model, but with more devices with strict (but customizable) limitations. If you go jogging, let the cell phone consume more power to stream music so you don't have to carry any other heavy gadgets to stream to your headphones. If you have a smart watch, let it stream cached songs and make calls in case of an emergency and ditch the phone altogether. And you could even have a regular smart phone in the mix if that format is the best for the situation, but I really hate constantly needing my giant phone when I go anywhere.
frank2 6y ago
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1086/691462 https://sci-hub.tw/10.1086/691462
disown 6y ago
Isn't this true for any source of distraction? What about a baseball or a book or a dvd or anything? The presence of a distraction reduces cognitive capacity? Other than superficially padding their "researchers'" resume, what is gained by this "study"? We've know this for years. It's why teachers insist kids put away their smartphones, etc.
- Dumblydorr 6y ago
  I doubt a baseball is on the same level. It's not magical, it doesn't connect to everyone and everything you know, and everything you don't. A baseball is a mere sphere, out of context on a desk. A phone is something we check 60 times per day, which can vastly affect our emotions. A play sphere from a dying game surely doesn't elicit such a range of possibility as a modern marvel of addictive programming, something that needs to be buried in the bag to prevent distraction?
- flanbiscuit 6y ago
  > Isn't this true for any source of distraction? Thought the same thing. Sure I can put my smartphone out of sight while working but I am on a computer with the same exact level of access that my smartphone provides. Sometimes I can get in a zone and sometimes I flip between work and distracting myself with sites like HN. I can answer SMS and DMs for all my services and social sites in the browser. Pre-pandemic you can throw an open office plan into the mix as a big distractor as well. I listen to non-vocal chill electronic music while I work and I bet there's some study out there showing that listening to any type of music while trying to work reduces cognitive capacity (I'm speculating here). I feel like managing distraction just a big part of life these days.
roedog 6y ago
I made my largest gains in programming competence almost 10 years ago when working on a system with no connection to the internet and no cell phone at hand. I was working a development assignment on an air-gapped network. Not being able to search google every time I got stuck forced me to actually read the documentation, man pages, and reference books and think through what was going on and come up with solutions. The internet terminal was a 10 minute walk away so I treated it like a trip to the library for research only after I had spent time working on the problem myself.
- fuzzfactor 6y ago
  >I treated it like a trip to the library for research only after I had spent time working on the problem myself. This is contrary to the (also true) conventional wisdom where _6 months in the lab can save you hours in the library_. So you have to be careful. But it can work exceptionally well once you've already been to the library a bit, you know better & better what it has to offer, when you do go back it's with a clearer focus on what you need, and you get the most out of it.
daniel_iversen 6y ago
I wrote 5 simple things you can do to improve calm, productivity and focus using your phone: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-simple-immediate-hacks-improving-your-mobile-phone-calmness-daniel/?trackingId=8U0joNfvRC6NLEk2ocaCpg%3D%3D https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-simple-immediate-hacks-impr... My favorite personal tip is to turn off colors on the phone and run in pure black and white mode :) I've done this for about 2 years now and I loove it! IF you try any tricks to reduce reliance, stimulation and/or distraction on your phone, go into Screen Time (or Android equivalent) and take a screenshot of how much you've picked up your phone in the last 7 days (because Screen Time doesn't maintain history) so you can compare later on to see if you've improved!
- smichel17 6y ago
  Thank you for the reminder to turn grayscale back on. I really like its impact on my phone usage, but occasionally I come across something that I want/need color for, and don't always remember to turn grayscale back on again when I'm done.
sasaf5 6y ago
I wanted to get rid of my phone, but the leverage given by my portable emacs machine + instant Wikipedia lookup was just too much to give away. Without much success I have tried for a long time to quit the most addictive things on my phone (reading news, watching videos), until I recently came up with a doctrine that has been working well: I keep the fun for my laptop, and away from my phone. This way I am not constantly attracted to it, but also not completely out of the loop in a way that would make me abandon my discipline. Texting remains an unsolved problem... Bantering with all my friend circles at multiple timezones the whole day does distract me very much, but is also a big source of non-programming happiness, which I am in dire need during the pandemic.
kuharich 6y ago
Past comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967
rkunal 6y ago
Is there a metric that directly or indirectly indicates the amount of cognitive capacity used/spent ? Something like maybe calories.
abhayhegde 6y ago
How do you guys cope up with the lack of social media presence? I understand the drama and inattention it brings, but what about the urge to connect with people or learn from others? Also, is it beneficial not to have an online portfolio when it comes to jobs or opportunities?
- pas 6y ago
  Drama? Inattention? Could you explain that a bit? Do you mean twitter drama and FB racist uncle drama, and lack of faceless "happy birthdays" on FB? Or the lack of validating likes on instagram? Because I found that to connect with people to learn FB is a complete nonstarter, instagram and twitter are both hopelessly trash due to their write-only nature. It's very hard to learn just by observing. (Sure, there are a few counter-examples, when you ask some expert/authority on some subject and they reply and many other folks too, and you might get some insight. But usually those are shallow, lacking detail, etc.) Also, just being on these platforms doesn't mean you have to use them. (I mean I use FB Messenger all the time, but it's completely silent, I don't even get notifications - I have no idea why, I tried to somehow enable them, but they still don't show up, so if someone wants something they have to GSM call me.) So, just have a profile, fill out your about/bio, and so recruiters/HR will be at ease. Focused, moderated subreddits are usually okay. Plus now thinking about it, reporting GitHub issues and trying to fix bugs helped the most with learning something. (Unfortunately it only works for code related things, but usually there are open communities for other domains where one can participate and learn from others.)
anonytrary 6y ago
Extremely fascinating and an instanceof "people who are given everything in life don't know how to take care of themselves".
nix23 6y ago
It's not the presence, it's the operating mode of your Smartphone...namely Airplanemode, which is my main-mode.
quantumwoke 6y ago
During COVID I threw my phone out as a potential infection risk, and my life has been all the better for it. I'm happier, less sick, and I feel more intelligent. Win win! :).
poma88 6y ago
Please could you provide the same study type for each social network, thanks!
gexla 6y ago
I'm the same as many here for whom the computer is the problem rather than the cell phone. What's interesting is that the computer is simultaneously a bicycle for the mind and a handicap.
known 6y ago
Does Calculators reduce Arithmetic capabilities ?
solidist 6y ago
The Presence of One’s Smart Friend/Coworker Increases Available Cognitive Capacity (always)
idiocrat 6y ago
One possible factor could be that if those researchers are taking away the source of my happiness hormones (the sweet cloud of mindless meme browsing) that then my brain goes in overdrive and releases fighter hormones, so I can quickly finish with that stupid experiment and that I get my toy back quickly. I think they are measuring the wrong thing. A junkie can get very creative and intelligent just to get his/her next shot.
ashutoshgngwr 6y ago
Apparently the link submitted here requires you to pay $20 in order to access the content. I emailed one of the authors and he was unaware of this. In response, he added a PDF version of the article on his website. http://www.adrianfward.com/ http://www.adrianfward.com/ (third publication from the top as of now).
smartphone91643 6y ago
i thanked my last smartphone in Magic of Tidying Up induced tearful mania then crushed it with a small boulder. weirdest dreams ever as my brain went ohno there went my backup how does physical space work. since ditched pc, ereader, internet, and finally flip phone, going paper purist for 4 months. typing this now on an olympically defunct 3g numpad phone so listen up. it's a cruel lie that living without the stuff is hard. taking the plunge will take months and leave you weeping in the shower. or maybe i have a mind that naturally reacts strongly to it idunno nobody like that here right. the part that can take weeks of stressfull time work is deleting accounts. digital detox whoo sure great but imagine the freedom of having nothing to return to. all the Kondo insight maps over: does this device, login, file, data in the cloud somewhere bring me joy? my digital closet had millions of identifiable objects, taking up no less space for being virtual. there is aversion in the ambiguous task each represents. gonna drop social media? gotta at least consider you might need that squash recipe burried in chat. glance over every app and service you use and ask how do i live without it -and- where do i find the time and wheelbarrow to get myself out. more saliently, which of the people on the other side do i say bye to or ask for more intimate contact info? the dauntingness of unknowns can only be faced with the will to exit. the only ultimate fate of the unrefactorable is deletion. if you're even a little concerned about the tools you use robbing some magic alternative future for yourself, dont detox, switch.
hexbinencoded 6y ago
TL;DR: Smartphones with either productivity or socialization don't mix. I don't doubt it. During work, notes should be taken on paper and smartphones should be left away as a general guide. I also think the same should apply to social gatherings and meetings because the point of being with others hinges on attention. (Otherwise, it could've been done over email.) What does it say to others when someone doesn't appear to be listening or their speech slows because they're trying to read a notification?
cmoscoso 6y ago
All these people addicted to their phone. Glad I only use mine to call my drug dealer.

874 points by wtracy 6y ago

jessaustin 6y ago

I know a couple of old guys who will love this.

Shared404 6y ago
Old guys know stuff. Many times, it's useful stuff other's have forgotten.
- jupp0r 6y ago
  I agree with you and GP at the same time.
  - Shared404 6y ago
    Both are sides of the same coin. I just figured I'd bring up the other side.
    - jessaustin 6y ago
      Frankly I don't see any disagreement. I didn't say "old guys" as an epithet. They call themselves that...
      - nobody9999 6y ago
        >Frankly I don't see any disagreement. I didn't say "old guys" as an epithet. They call themselves that... As an older (never old! Okay not for another ten years or so. :) ) guy, I can say that while I do have a smartphone, I primarily use it as a (gasp) phone. I also do SMS (Signal is preferred, but many folks aren't security conscious) and read email. I don't use my phone for anything that has or could have financial implications -- phones just aren't secure enough for that. What's more, after being an early adopter of social media (FB in 2004), I gave it up years ago because the business model was clearly exploitative and I wanted no part of it anymore. Besides, as an IT/InfoSec professional, I spend way too much time looking at screens anyway and don't need to be constantly looking at my phone too. Heck, I just went and ran a few errands and didn't even bring the damn thing with me. I'd point out that it wasn't very long ago that few people had mobile devices. In fact, when I was a child, few people even had (now obsolete) answering machines in their homes. And wonder of wonders, we managed to do just fine. Sure, it's useful to have a device that allows me to look up directions or get information about someplace I may be going, or let others know if I need to change plans or similar stuff. But that's just convenience, not a necessity. I've been working with, designing and implementing internetworking solutions since ~1990, most of that time as a paid professional, so I'm not exactly a Luddite either. In fact, I'm more technical than most younger people. And because I've been doing InfoSec for decades, I'm aware of the risks, as well as the benefits of being constantly connected. IMHO, unless there's some important reason to be tethered to one's device (a family member's health, on-call duties, etc.) the risks often outweigh the benefits. Now get off my lawn! Edit: Added context WRT convenience vs. necessity

ardillamorris 6y ago

I get it - the act of staying away from your phone is taking up cognitive capacity. And if you're addicted, the constant reminder to check also takes cognitive capacity. Sex is no different - if you're single, or married and you want more sex than your significant other - believe me, sex will reduce your available cognitive capacity. The constant thought of how do I get more of it (single or married) I'm sure does more than your smartphone and probably the smartphone is just a tool to the idea of getting more sex.

bkeating 6y ago
Well said. We need more analogies like this.
bobthechef 6y ago
Managing the appetites requires self-denial. In the case of married couples, the spouse has a moral obligation to satisfy the other sexually within moral and reasonable limits (i.e., sexual abuse or objectification of the other is never admissible). Phone addiction is in this sense easier. It can also be managed through abstinence or even eliminated cold turkey if you wish because we have no intrinsic desire for phone use, but we do have an intrinsic desire for sex. And yeah, the passions, when we are ruled by them instead of ruling over them, can darken our minds and enslave us. (In your example, the "daughters of lust" are apropos.) A man has as many masters as he has vices.
- nobody9999 6y ago
  >In the case of married couples, the spouse has a moral obligation to satisfy the other sexually within moral and reasonable limits (i.e., sexual abuse or objectification of the other is never admissible). I can't agree with those statements. No one, not your spouse, not your significant other and not anyone else is obliged to provide sexual satisfaction to you or anyone else. What's more, while consent is never optional, pleasing one's partner should be a joy, and if your partner desires objectification or even what you (note that what you think and believe doesn't apply to everyone else) term "sexual abuse," that's between consenting adults. Your judgement as to what is "moral" is an individual judgement that applies to you. There are more things (as well as kinks and fetishes) in earth and heaven than are dreamt of in your philosophy. And just so it's crystal clear, consent is never optional and no one, regardless of relationship status is obligated to provide sexual satisfaction to anyone.

gooseus 6y ago

I think this needs a (2017), here is a link to a PDF - https://rady.ucsd.edu/docs/faculty/aGneezy/Published%20Papers/BrainDrain_Published.email.pdf https://rady.ucsd.edu/docs/faculty/aGneezy/Published%20Paper...

throwaway413 6y ago
Much appreciated!
sbierwagen 6y ago
To save a click: >Five hundred forty-eight undergraduates participated for course credit. [...] Our final sample consisted of 520 smartphone users. 520 isn't as bad as I was expecting, but it's still an order of magnitude away from being meaningful. And, obviously, a study population consisting only of students attending the same class is maybe going to be slightly biased.

omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago

I feel like this applies to just about anything that compels us to pay attention to it (TV, video games, etc...), albeit in different ways depending on the media.

JJMcJ 6y ago
Go to laundromat. Bring book, this time I'm going to get some reading done. Oooh, moldy golf tournament (or soap opera) on TV. And there goes 90 minutes.
- ben_w 6y ago
  For the same reason, my ex always avoided food places with TVs in them whenever she could.
  - justinlloyd 6y ago
    I hate going to restaurants or bars with friends/colleagues/family where the bar or restaurant has a TV showing whatever it is showing. Everyone inevitably gravitates to watching the TV rather than having a conversation. I can have dinner in front of a TV at home.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Last week when I was in a hospital waiting room, I knocked out A Brief History of Time in one sitting. That thing's been on my bookshelf for at least ten years untouched. I'm not sure it significantly enhanced my life (though it helped my understanding of the fabric of the universe, I guess?), but it felt like an accomplishment.
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    I spent a good chunk of the last few years in physical therapy. Before sessions in the waiting room, and during the period of the session where they're applying heat/cooling or electricity I got a lot of reading done. I had a rule, broken recently and I need to restore it, of no electronics in my sitting room. Made it a very productive reading area as well. No laptop, tablet, kindle [0], or phone. At most I listened to music in it. Part of the problem was I started reading some programming books and wanted to code up things along with the text (like working through math exercises while reading a math book). I need to start handwriting the code and type it up at the desk later. [0] It's a Kindle Fire in my case. Which offers some of the same distractions, despite being lower power, as a tablet or phone. I did use it in there when I was actually reading on it sometimes. But it's a risk.

bigdict 6y ago

I keep my smartphone in a different room when I’m working from home. When it’s on my desk, even covering it with a piece of paper helps.

nerdponx 6y ago

I wonder if this has implications for our understanding of addiction more generally in humans.

perlgod 6y ago

Getting rid of my smartphone was without a doubt the most positive thing I ever did for myself. I'm sure some people have the self-control to use it sparingly. But for me, not having to constantly fight the urge to check my always-connected magic pocket internet portal has freed up a huge amount of my mental willpower, which I can now redirect to other more important things. Now that everything is closed, I don't even miss having the convenience of Uber/Google Maps. Additionally, without social media, I remain blissfully unaware of whatever corona hysteria or political drama is consuming the minds of my peers. These devices have a veritable legion of engineers working to make the smartphone experience as addictive as possible. For some people, the only winning move it not to play.

geocrasher 6y ago
I get the same thing by A) not watching the news B) turning off notifications for almost all apps C) the real magic key to keeping control of your smart phone, instead of letting it control you is <buzz> <buzz> hang on Hello? Look I'm right in the middle of something I'll... yeah. I know I ... I KNOW. Look, I gotta go. Anyway, as I was saying... uh... well anyway. Phones suck.
- r00fus 6y ago
  I am very brutal in ignoring calls and sending SMS text replies to known IDs that might have something urgent. I know the prefix is for all of my key numbers like kids schools, hospitals and simply don’t pick up if the prefix is not right.
- DiffEq 6y ago
  I have had my office phone on Do Not Disturb for 5 years and my cell phone has all notifications turned off and the ringer is set to off. The only time i turn it on is if I am expecting a call - which is hardly ever. Same with my PC - no notifications...it helps a great deal to keep the tool a tool instead of letting it become your master.
  - gadabout 6y ago

germinalphrase 6y ago

As a teacher of high schoolers, I believe this.

ed25519FUUU 6y ago

I was just remarking the other day while doing my morning constitutional that I can't remember what I used to do while sitting on the john when I didn't have a cell phone. I honestly couldn't remember. Probably just sit quietly and think and be bored. I wonder if boredom is good for us. Our brains probably need time not to be engaged with our eyes do mental housecleaning. Meditation is good but it's not the same as sitting and being bored.

wlesieutre 6y ago
Read the ingredients on a shampoo bottle
- ed25519FUUU 6y ago
  WOW flashback! I absolutely remember doing that, and wondering what "shea butter" was (obviously I couldn't quickly google it).
shard 6y ago
You don't leave a book in the bathroom? I have gotten through so many books in my to-read list just by leaving it in the bathroom. It takes very little mental effort to not bring a smartphone to the john when there is a book waiting, at least for me.
bittercynic 6y ago
Maybe boredom is beneficial because it can drive you to do something productive, and then the relief from boredom is coupled to the productivity. The "Opponent process theory"[0] really rings true for me, and I think could be used to argue that experiencing boredom has some benefits. [0] https://gettingstronger.org/2010/05/opponent-process-theory/ https://gettingstronger.org/2010/05/opponent-process-theory/
nbap 6y ago
Books and magazines
justinlloyd 6y ago

rajeshmr 6y ago

Quitting smartphone has been incredible for me and i don't miss it at all. :)

ChrisCinelli 6y ago
Tell us more.
rvz 6y ago
Good job. The same companies are now trying to do the same thing but with Smartwatches that tell the time and... - More Notifications - Messaging - Calling - Internet - GPS - Plays music, video and podcasts + Health and Fitness (Can't disagree with that one) and finally the worst saved until last... - Apps The industry is doing it all over again with the smartphone but now it will be all on your wrist, but marketed cleverly as a 'Health and Fitness device'.
- takeda 6y ago
  I actually liked how Pebble approached it, it was a watch first with some smart functionality. It so sad that they went out of business, because they made exactly what I was looking in a smart watch.
- mkskm 6y ago
  Have you tried the Apple Watch? I don't find it addictive at all. On the contrary, it's significantly reduced my phone use and nearly eliminated the need for taking my phone when going out if not for missing some essential functionality (e.g. Lyft/Uber, offline maps, an affordable cell plan).
  - rashkov 6y ago
    How about with an LTE model? I’m thinking that with a pair of AirPods and an LTE Apple Watch, I may be able to leave the phone at home while still being able to text, make phone calls, get directions, and even order a taxi. Maybe even stream some music. Anyone with experience doing this?

joshe 6y ago

"Journal of the Association for Consumer Research" and vague implied effects on mental state both pretty good indicators that this will not replicate. About half of psychology papers don't replicate anyway, the field has been doing some house cleaning, which is awesome, but needs to do a lot more. Oh you can add that all the researchers are marketing professors at business schools (one now at Snap). Good job on the marketing though, perfectly designed to get headlines. https://www.colorado.edu/business/adrian-f-ward https://www.colorado.edu/business/adrian-f-ward https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Duke https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/Fa... https://rady.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/ayelet-gneezy/ https://rady.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/ayelet-gneezy/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartenbos/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartenbos/

socalnate1 6y ago
I find this response overly dismissive. Did you read the paper or just the abstract? Dismissing the work of marketing professors out of hand isn't the right approach. What if this is one of the half of psychology papers that do replicate?
- tqi 6y ago
  https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/scientists-can-collectively-sense-which-psychology-studies-are-weak/568630/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/scientis... While I definitely agree that one shouldn't be overly dismissive without reading the underlying paper, the abstract can actually be surprisingly predictive. "Beyond statistical issues, it strikes me that several of the studies that didn’t replicate have another quality in common: newsworthiness. They reported cute, attention-grabbing, whoa-if-true results that conform to the biases of at least some parts of society. One purportedly showed that reading literary fiction improves our ability to understand other people’s beliefs and desires. Another said that thinking analytically weakens belief in religion. Yet another said that people who think about computers are worse at recalling old information—a phenomenon that the authors billed as “the Google effect.” All of these were widely covered in the media."
- mjburgess 6y ago

justizin 6y ago

somehow this is not surprising at all. :/

agumonkey 6y ago

I can personally say the same for internet. When my ISP goes down my brain unfold 2x and time slows down.

charlesju 6y ago

One trick I've been doing recently is I've reduced my cell phone internet plan to a monthly cap with rollover. And then I only turn on my cell internet when I really need it for something. This has changed my default behavior pattern outside to disconnect from the internet, and that has let me feel a lot more present in whatever I'm doing.

jupp0r 6y ago

I came here to criticize the clickbait title only to find out that the clickbait title is on the actual paper as well! Of course the "presence" of smart phones cannot reduce cognitive capacity, it's the things we've learned to associate with smart phones (if it's true at all).

hk__2 6y ago

This should be suffixed with "(2017)"

Nbox9 6y ago

Do you believe this effect applies to you? If not, why. If you believe in this effect, and still keep a smartphone, why?

mym1990 6y ago
Just like many addictions, just because you know the negative side-effects doesn't mean you are willing to give up the activity. Plenty of people know how bad fast food or smoking can be, but the trade off of feeling good while doing it is too good to pass up. A lot of times I find myself picking up the phone to message one person, but I end up on a 15 minute journey scrolling through whatever social media I am on and almost forget my initial intention. Disciple is obviously a big factor here. I think this can be managed without totally getting rid of your smartphone. Like the saying goes: "out of sight, out of mind". Everyone's mileage will vary though, just my 2c

phobosanomaly 6y ago

Perhaps it's functioning as a substitute for the constant social interaction that was once a facet of living in a tribal society. We always had someone near us we were chatting with, but now that we have eliminated that level of social connection in the modern social environment, we have replaced it with the smartphone. It may just be satisfying a hardwired biological need for constant chit-chat. If you look at it that way, as a coping technique for loneliness, it doesn't seem too bad.

Barrin92 6y ago
Social Media isn't a substitute for healthy social interaction which becomes very evident when one looks at the psychological outcomes of people who use it heavily, particular say, teenage girls. Most social media interaction isn't genuine conversation between peers but a sort of status contest in which people pull up façades and present idealised versions of themselves, mostly strongly influenced by whatever is trending within society at large. An important finding of loneliness research has repeatedly been that loneliness is not equivalent to merely not being in contact with others. One can be alone but not lonely, and one can be lonely while superficially in contact with others.
- phobosanomaly 6y ago
  Sure, I'm not suggesting that it's an ideal, or adequate substitute, but rather that it may function as a coping technique. A temporary band-aid. In the absence of genuine conversation or a close social relationship, this may be a stop-gap. Like Wilson in Castaway. It's a crutch to get someone through the long, lonely times.
- jdashg 6y ago
  Most in-person social interaction is ingenuine in the same ways, but it's easier to be less genuine (more fake) over low bandwidth media like text. (And actually it's much harder to be genuine at low bandwidth, too)
- demosito666 6y ago
  > Most social media interaction isn't genuine conversation between peers but a sort of status contest But exactly the same is true for regular communications, especially for teenagers, whose whole life is making impression on their peers.

balola 6y ago

I guess using a really old model helps avoid it.

_def 6y ago

I recently took a camping trip with some friends (one weekend) and left my phone at home. Except for not knowing which time it is, it was a very positive experience.

justinlloyd 6y ago
"What time is it?" If I am awake it is after 9:30AM but before 4AM. If I am asleep it is after 4AM but before 9:30AM. Only my dog cares about the any other time such as: time for a walk. time for breakfast. time for a nap. time for dinner. time for another walk. :-)

rland 6y ago

> Participants in the “desk” condition left mostof their belongings in the lobby but took their phones into the testing room “for use in a later study;” once in the testing room, they were instructed to place their phones facedown in a designated location on their desks. Yeah, color me skeptical. You're in a study currently, and you're asked to place your phone on your desk for a later study. This is quite different from just having your phone around, because you're basically thinking about 'phones' and 'studies' together while you're in the study. That's very different from 'mere presence' in my mind.

Dumblydorr 6y ago
Isn't that what we constantly do with our phones: keep them around just in case, for when we inevitably get a text or call or think of something to text or get the urge?

bitxbitxbitcoin 6y ago

I wonder just how much worse it is if you have two phones? One for work use and one for personal use.

justinlloyd 6y ago

I lack a lot of self-control in many areas of my life. Except when it comes to my smartphone which for me is a tool rather than an entertainment device. Most of my day the phone is in DnD/flipped over on the second desk in my office and not within arm's reach. I don't know how much having the device in the same room as me is a "cognitive capacity reducer" but for the most part, my smartphone is a forgotten device except for when I need to use it for something. My needs in a smartphone are: Maps & navigation. Local business lookup. Bank account. Audible. Camera. Password manager. Calculator. Grocery shopping list. Recipe book for when at the grocery store. Authenticator. Uber. Check email. SMS. Occasional voice call. All audible notifications except for alarms and calendar are disabled. All visual notifications are disabled except for SMS. I get conversation starter SMS messages once, maybe twice a month, at most. I don't even have games & apps that I worked on installed on my device. I just keep shortcuts to videos of them on the device in case I need to show them off. I don't know if this is a normal behaviour for people that have smartphones. I do see an awful lot of people totally engrossed in their devices to the exclusion of all others. I also see, anecdotally, some people, software developer colleagues, who don't get anything more than a few minutes before the smartphone cheeps or chirps with a new notification or distraction. I've actually thought about getting rid of my oh-so-delicate-dont-ever-drop-it smartphone and just going back to a flip phone, though I'd miss the camera. I take a lot of pictures of things for reference, e.g. disassembling a piece of electronics or a piece of furniture I want to copy.

godshatter 6y ago
I have a fairly nice smart phone, and I use it for phone calls, text messages, 2FA, e-books, taking pictures, checking the weather forecast, and as a clock/timer/alarm. In a pinch I'll look something up or access my bank account, but very rarely. I'm in front of my desktop computer 10 to 12 hours a day, if I need to search for something on the web I'll do it then. If I want to play a game, I'll play it on my expensive desktop computer. If I'm going on a trip I'll bring my laptop. I must be in the minority, but the size and ergonomics of the phone make it a last-resort sort of device for me despite the fact that it looks like a futuristic sci-fi device.
- 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

hindsightbias 6y ago

“Point of View is worth 80 IQ points.” — Alan Kay Your phone gates yor viewpoint.

tester756 6y ago

I almost never used smartphone and I'm in early 20s I just know I'd spend way too much time on surfing the net. It's not hard but sometimes I worry that some situation will occur where access to the internet would really help

_bramses 6y ago

I actually use two phones. One is an old one I planned on recycling, but now I use it as my "focus" phone. The only apps on it are: Forest, Spotify, Kindle, and the ones Apple won't let me remove. When I'm working I put my main driver phone in another room entirely. This strategy has been doing wonders for my focus, and I still get to jam to my favorite tunes while working.

crazygringo 6y ago

First of all, with the caveat that, as is so common with psych studies, this was performed on undergraduates only. There is no reason to assume that this would necessarily extend to a 30-year-old mother, a 40-year business executive, etc. (To the contrary, one could also imagine that having their phone on them increased their capacity to think about other things, with the peace of mind that they can get things done efficiently.) But secondly, the headline to the paper "reduces available cognitive capacity", while written to sound bad, isn't obviously bad at all. Your overall cognitive capacity isn't reduced -- it's just some is being taken up by thinking about your phone. One hypothesis could be that if you're able to be reached, then you spend time worrying about the things people will be reaching you for -- if you've sent that e-mail, if you've finished that report, if you've decided whether or not to go to that event. That these are things you have to figure out or do anyways, and if you're not worrying about them now, you'll still have to later. Yes, removing the smartphone lets you relax for now, but that's just temporary. Otherwise it might be happening later over dinner instead. What would be more interesting would be to find variance in the data -- which participants had reduced cognitive capacity and which didn't -- and then correlate that with other reported differences, such as their stress levels, to-do's, obligations, etc. I'm quite sure the answer isn't as simple as "smartphones make us dumb", but closer to the truth that in being instantly connected to other people, that's something our brain is busy managing. But you know what? That may very well be a net benefit -- that being connected allows us to achieve our goals better, more, faster. That the cognitive capcity it's using is a good use.

skratlo 6y ago
What goals? So far those goals seem to be related to planet destruction via excessive consumption. Slowing down is what can save us from extinction.
- crazygringo 6y ago
  Well, obviously yes if you're a cynic and think our goal is to destroy the planet, then that. But that seems... extreme. Conversely, if you're optimistic, then you might imagine that all the people trying to save the planet are using the coordination and information that cellphones enable to gain more influence and achieve that. Five hundred years ago, I'm sure people made the same arguments about books -- that they kept our concentration from the immediate present, and could be used to achieve bad things. I'm pretty sure books turned out to be a net positive. I feel the same way about cell phones.

chadlavi 6y ago

Not to brag, but I'm often able to maintain low levels of cognitive ability even while my phone is stowed away.

mym1990 6y ago
This is the content I need on a Friday afternoon.
mirekrusin 6y ago
Pro tip: if you feeling smart, dig in your nose, works wonders.
- cmauniada 6y ago
  Is it weird that I was doing that as I read your comment?
  - jjgreen 6y ago
    and you replied, so eew, your keyboard ...
    - GreenWatermelon 6y ago
      Naaah, I keep tissues nearby. Gotta maintain a clean nose at all times.
    - efreak 6y ago
      Who said anything about a keyboard? We're using phones here, remember?
erikpukinskis 6y ago
You’re a better man than me.

didibus 6y ago

I want a smartphone that only has useful apps and nothing else. I want it to have SMS and Phone, Google Maps, Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, and such. But I don't want social media, I don't want news, I don't want a browser, I don't want email, etc.

dgarrett 6y ago
Apple Watch with LTE mostly fulfills this. And the screen is so small that it’s not worth it to port more addictive apps.
- didibus 6y ago
  Hum... I thought about that, but you need an iPhone to link it too. If I could just by the watch I'd do it!
- mkskm 6y ago
  I'm surprised Lyft/Uber hasn't been brought back yet. It would be extremely useful to have on hand now with the cellular model.
  - dgarrett 6y ago
    Uber is still on WatchOS and it works independently with LTE: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/uber-request-a-ride/id368677368#?platform=appleWatch https://apps.apple.com/us/app/uber-request-a-ride/id36867736...
corytheboyd 6y ago
What's wrong with just not downloading applications you do not want to use? You could make the argument against iOS that you can't delete some default applications but... just don't use them.
takeda 6y ago
At least with android you can disable apps (even those that are built in). Of course you need a discipline to not enable them back.

takeda 6y ago

Is there a way to access the paper without the subscription?

dagaci 6y ago

Unable to read past the abstract here, so I'm guessing that the the mere presence of the smartphone causes an unconscious distraction because the phone might "do something". Is it possible the that simply switching off the device will eliminate the distraction and impact on attention?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Terretta 6y ago

Turn off all notifications. Turn off all badges. Change default text tone and ring tone to silence (make or purchase a ringtone of silence). Set custom ring tone for your partner or other key people (you will always be happy to be interrupted by) to whatever sound you would want in emergency. At this point, only those you would welcome interruption from can get your attention. For meetings, toggle phone to silent, so even the custom ring people won’t make noise. If you “must” be reachable in real time for work, consider scheduling DND for all hours outside work hours. You can, on a contact by contact basis, designate individuals as able to dial through DND for emergencies.

corytheboyd 6y ago

We got to smart phones for a reason. Keep your phone. Use services through a web browser instead of standalone applications, then delete said applications. Turn off notifications for remaining applications that do not warrant the urgency of push notifications. Live your life.

m0zg 6y ago

More broadly, I think the mere availability of mindless entertainment reduces one's ability to do anything else. I observe this in myself and others. In order to willingly do useful things, I need to be bored. That's when I feel a need to do something, and if that "something" is not Instagram or YouTube, I go for the more salient things. So for me boredom is a very useful state to be in. If I can't get bored (if entertainment is immediately available) I will not do anything useful at all. I have to make a conscious decision to not access entertainment during the day in order to get anything done. Fortunately I can do that without much of a drain on my willpower reserves. But my son (and his peers) grew up in a world where everyone has Internet at all times, and the problem is more severe there. I'm trying to convince him that the way he's doing things now (basically 8 hours of YouTube and games a day, and lots of missing homework) will cause much regret in the future and will lead to a much worse lifestyle. So far I have failed to convince him of that though.

jessemcbride 6y ago
That's a great observation. We chase the noise all the time, but what would happen if we let ourselves be bored instead?
- m0zg 6y ago
  Another observation is, boredom (at least for me) is a necessary pre-requisite for thinking deeply about things. I've noticed this years ago when I was at Google. When a hard problem would arise (which was nearly every day), I'd go for a long walk outside, leaving my phone on my desk. By the end of the walk, I'd usually either have a solution, or a viable start of a solution. A lot of good work was done on those walks.
  - non-entity 6y ago
    A few weeks ago, my power went out and my phone was nearly dead, so I let it sit for the time. In the time I had se thing id been working on "click" while just pacing around the apartment.
6y ago

ChrisCinelli 6y ago

I used to be addicted to my laptops. I used to over-work and when I was not working I was reading a lot of articles and spending time on news and some social networks. Even if I am selective with who I add as friends and follow, it is a lot of time that does not have good ROI. It was pretty much no stop activity since I woke up to when I was going to sleep. I stopped completely using computers except for work. It has been pretty hard transition. What happened is that I shifted to use a lot more my smartphone. I tried to keep it in airplane mode or turn off the data for most of the time. I also tried to have different devices for different activities. Switching to a dumb phone seems extreme but I am wondering if it is the final solution.

defnotashton2 6y ago
I'm in the same boat.

slothtrop 6y ago

New hot take: I'm addicted to my laptop. The phone barely registers in terms of interest because I work on my laptop anyway, which is less cumbersome to navigate. Notwithstanding the need to separate work from leisure life, much of leisure is just attached to this device. Even the less consumptive activities, like writing or playing music, benefit from it. And anything to do with innovation or research is absolutely tied to it. This has been amplified somewhat owing to the pandemic, keeping me from activities out-in-the-world, but even before it all happened I merely had the gym and the odd outing to the coffee shop on the regular, and weekly/bi-weekly outings with friends. It's a mechanical issue. By which I mean, I enjoy research at leisure and relatively solitary activities, but at the same time I want to pull away from being in front of a screen; it hasn't to do with consumption versus creativity or challenge. I try to remedy this with scheduled walks, and enough social time. Historically I imagine a person like myself would just be stuck in front of books instead, which I do also, but so much info can be gleaned from the web particularly research papers. EDIT: this concerns me more-so now as we'll be trying for a kid, and I'd like to lead by example. What I'd like to see in the future is AR tech that rewards mobility and in-person interaction, creating collaborative spaces anywhere. That may seem like more of the same problem, but the marriage with technology will only deepen, so it's up to us to set the terms.

csallen 6y ago
Same here. I've been addicted to my laptop for years, and can go days without looking at my phone. For the same reason: everything is on my laptop. Work, movies, books, chats with friends, my podcast, research, etc. And I have the same remedies, too: schedule things to just get myself out of the house.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ehnto 6y ago
I am right there with you. I kicked the phone addiction in various ways, but I really like to work on personal projects and they're all on the computer, much like my work, so I'm always on my computer. I have a few tricks. I have a work laptop and a gaming computer, and I do all my personal work on the gaming computer. That helps separate the two. I have a workspace which gets me out of the house and keeps me focused while at work, so I can get it done quicker and ultimately spend less time on the computer. I also have a few outdoors hobbies, and a few indoors hobbies that are away from the computer. But of course I can't make progress on my computer projects off the computer, so that's still a conundrum I can't solve. I am at the point where I wonder if maybe I should work outdoors or offline, in order to regain my online time. But I'm not sure where to take that.

atarian 6y ago

That's a funny way of saying "smartphones are distracting"..

anthk 6y ago

- Use ed as a text editor - go back to usenet with slrn. Less noise, a slower pace - get gamebooks - use youtube-dl, listen to media offline - code or write a book, stop consuming and sharing

firstSpeaker 6y ago

Anyone has access to the source of the article? Aka, the full text/PDF to share it?

takeda 6y ago
Had the same question, looks like here's a link[1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24519880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24519880

dang 6y ago

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967

zaidf 6y ago

I can vouch for this :) From Jan to March (when covid hit), I started leaving my phone at work on Fridays. People would ask me "why not just leave it in another room or in your bag at home?" and I would say "it is not the same!". Indeed, the mere knowledge that I have the phone within reach was noticeably more distracting than knowing it was a mile away.

ChrisCinelli 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_technology

kashyapc 6y ago

Many here might know this, but worth mentioning again: A simple but underrated remedy to reduce the colourful appeal of a "smartphone" is to put it in black-and-white mode (i.e. gray scale). On Android you can do it this way: 'Developer options' --> 'Simulate color space' --> 'Monochromacy' I couple that with: + Turning off all notifications. + I don't use any of the run-of-the-mill social media for about 7 years. + Most of my serious reading is largely via old-fashioned books. All of the above makes it for a damn calm device.

barbarr 6y ago
Tried the grayscale thing for a couple months. I primarily consume text on the internet, so it didn't do anything for me.
mkskm 6y ago
This helps except that it needs to be turned off frequently for viewing and taking photos. It would be great if there were something like the smart invert setting for grayscale but I doubt that will ever happen.
- ed312 6y ago
  On iOS you can bind the accessibility shortcut to toggle this mode (triple click the lock button).

ezekiel68 6y ago

I find the majority of responses to these published findings to be fascinating. It's like when we learned in the past few years that humans only have a finite capacity for willpower within a given (short) timeframe. The near universal reaction among my intelligent friends was something like, "Well, I'm sure that's true for all those OTHER people..." Disclosure: My smartphone (currently) remains by my side. But this has got me thinking about the dilemma.

ajkjk 6y ago
That conclusion about willpower is quite suspect, fyi. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion.

mtalantikite 6y ago

Lately I’ve just been completely powering off my phone and leaving it in another room while I’m coding. Not that it ever was much of a problem for me, but I’ve really been enjoying one less (massive) distraction.

darosati 6y ago

https://scite.ai/reports/brain-drain-the-mere-presence-2NEepVn https://scite.ai/reports/brain-drain-the-mere-presence-2NEep... Interesting support for this article

nbzso 6y ago

Just sharing my approach. Phone is for calls and short messages, banking apps. After 6pm I reply only for close friends/family. No gaming. No movies. No tv. Old Ipad Air for casual browsing/rss. Work computer is only for work. Different machine is research and learning. Book reading on e-reader and paper. Drinking lot of water, active breaks every 30 minutes. When I feel that I have reached my cognitive daily peak - I stop everything and focus on relaxation. Never been so happy and productive in my life:)

achempion 6y ago
I mostly doing the same except my rss in emacs and ipad for reading. Would you mind elaborate about relaxation because I feel it's so easy to start browsing HN instead of getting proper rest.

RIMR 6y ago

This is reinforcing my theory that the ideal mobility solution is a limited-feature cell phone primarily used for messaging and calls, and a full-featured tablet that you have to keep in a bag, plus a bunch of accessories that tie everything together. Smartphones are inconvenient in size and don't fit in pockets. There's no great solution for running with a phone. They're fragile and heavy making them easy to break when dropped. They act as a constant attention drain alerting you to every tiny thing that happens. They have terrible battery life. You could go back to having a flip/candybar/slider phone with multiple days of battery life on a single charge that can use all of your messaging services and make calls. Add a few Uber shortcuts, a media controller, and a nice camera and you have the perfect pocket companion. You could have a nice tablet for everything else like social media, multimedia, games, and streaming, - even one that is functionally a laptop if you're going to need a bag for it. Let it run in a low power mode so that it can drive streaming music to your bluetooth headset and you can use your cell phone as a basic media remote. Basically run the iPhone/Apple Watch model, but with more devices with strict (but customizable) limitations. If you go jogging, let the cell phone consume more power to stream music so you don't have to carry any other heavy gadgets to stream to your headphones. If you have a smart watch, let it stream cached songs and make calls in case of an emergency and ditch the phone altogether. And you could even have a regular smart phone in the mix if that format is the best for the situation, but I really hate constantly needing my giant phone when I go anywhere.

frank2 6y ago

https://sci-hub.tw/10.1086/691462 https://sci-hub.tw/10.1086/691462

disown 6y ago

Isn't this true for any source of distraction? What about a baseball or a book or a dvd or anything? The presence of a distraction reduces cognitive capacity? Other than superficially padding their "researchers'" resume, what is gained by this "study"? We've know this for years. It's why teachers insist kids put away their smartphones, etc.

Dumblydorr 6y ago
I doubt a baseball is on the same level. It's not magical, it doesn't connect to everyone and everything you know, and everything you don't. A baseball is a mere sphere, out of context on a desk. A phone is something we check 60 times per day, which can vastly affect our emotions. A play sphere from a dying game surely doesn't elicit such a range of possibility as a modern marvel of addictive programming, something that needs to be buried in the bag to prevent distraction?
flanbiscuit 6y ago
> Isn't this true for any source of distraction? Thought the same thing. Sure I can put my smartphone out of sight while working but I am on a computer with the same exact level of access that my smartphone provides. Sometimes I can get in a zone and sometimes I flip between work and distracting myself with sites like HN. I can answer SMS and DMs for all my services and social sites in the browser. Pre-pandemic you can throw an open office plan into the mix as a big distractor as well. I listen to non-vocal chill electronic music while I work and I bet there's some study out there showing that listening to any type of music while trying to work reduces cognitive capacity (I'm speculating here). I feel like managing distraction just a big part of life these days.

roedog 6y ago

I made my largest gains in programming competence almost 10 years ago when working on a system with no connection to the internet and no cell phone at hand. I was working a development assignment on an air-gapped network. Not being able to search google every time I got stuck forced me to actually read the documentation, man pages, and reference books and think through what was going on and come up with solutions. The internet terminal was a 10 minute walk away so I treated it like a trip to the library for research only after I had spent time working on the problem myself.

fuzzfactor 6y ago
>I treated it like a trip to the library for research only after I had spent time working on the problem myself. This is contrary to the (also true) conventional wisdom where _6 months in the lab can save you hours in the library_. So you have to be careful. But it can work exceptionally well once you've already been to the library a bit, you know better & better what it has to offer, when you do go back it's with a clearer focus on what you need, and you get the most out of it.

daniel_iversen 6y ago

I wrote 5 simple things you can do to improve calm, productivity and focus using your phone: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-simple-immediate-hacks-improving-your-mobile-phone-calmness-daniel/?trackingId=8U0joNfvRC6NLEk2ocaCpg%3D%3D https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-simple-immediate-hacks-impr... My favorite personal tip is to turn off colors on the phone and run in pure black and white mode :) I've done this for about 2 years now and I loove it! IF you try any tricks to reduce reliance, stimulation and/or distraction on your phone, go into Screen Time (or Android equivalent) and take a screenshot of how much you've picked up your phone in the last 7 days (because Screen Time doesn't maintain history) so you can compare later on to see if you've improved!

smichel17 6y ago
Thank you for the reminder to turn grayscale back on. I really like its impact on my phone usage, but occasionally I come across something that I want/need color for, and don't always remember to turn grayscale back on again when I'm done.

sasaf5 6y ago

I wanted to get rid of my phone, but the leverage given by my portable emacs machine + instant Wikipedia lookup was just too much to give away. Without much success I have tried for a long time to quit the most addictive things on my phone (reading news, watching videos), until I recently came up with a doctrine that has been working well: I keep the fun for my laptop, and away from my phone. This way I am not constantly attracted to it, but also not completely out of the loop in a way that would make me abandon my discipline. Texting remains an unsolved problem... Bantering with all my friend circles at multiple timezones the whole day does distract me very much, but is also a big source of non-programming happiness, which I am in dire need during the pandemic.

kuharich 6y ago

Past comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967

rkunal 6y ago

Is there a metric that directly or indirectly indicates the amount of cognitive capacity used/spent ? Something like maybe calories.

abhayhegde 6y ago

How do you guys cope up with the lack of social media presence? I understand the drama and inattention it brings, but what about the urge to connect with people or learn from others? Also, is it beneficial not to have an online portfolio when it comes to jobs or opportunities?

pas 6y ago
Drama? Inattention? Could you explain that a bit? Do you mean twitter drama and FB racist uncle drama, and lack of faceless "happy birthdays" on FB? Or the lack of validating likes on instagram? Because I found that to connect with people to learn FB is a complete nonstarter, instagram and twitter are both hopelessly trash due to their write-only nature. It's very hard to learn just by observing. (Sure, there are a few counter-examples, when you ask some expert/authority on some subject and they reply and many other folks too, and you might get some insight. But usually those are shallow, lacking detail, etc.) Also, just being on these platforms doesn't mean you have to use them. (I mean I use FB Messenger all the time, but it's completely silent, I don't even get notifications - I have no idea why, I tried to somehow enable them, but they still don't show up, so if someone wants something they have to GSM call me.) So, just have a profile, fill out your about/bio, and so recruiters/HR will be at ease. Focused, moderated subreddits are usually okay. Plus now thinking about it, reporting GitHub issues and trying to fix bugs helped the most with learning something. (Unfortunately it only works for code related things, but usually there are open communities for other domains where one can participate and learn from others.)

anonytrary 6y ago

Extremely fascinating and an instanceof "people who are given everything in life don't know how to take care of themselves".

nix23 6y ago

It's not the presence, it's the operating mode of your Smartphone...namely Airplanemode, which is my main-mode.

quantumwoke 6y ago

During COVID I threw my phone out as a potential infection risk, and my life has been all the better for it. I'm happier, less sick, and I feel more intelligent. Win win! :).

poma88 6y ago

Please could you provide the same study type for each social network, thanks!

gexla 6y ago

I'm the same as many here for whom the computer is the problem rather than the cell phone. What's interesting is that the computer is simultaneously a bicycle for the mind and a handicap.

known 6y ago

Does Calculators reduce Arithmetic capabilities ?

solidist 6y ago

The Presence of One’s Smart Friend/Coworker Increases Available Cognitive Capacity (always)

idiocrat 6y ago

One possible factor could be that if those researchers are taking away the source of my happiness hormones (the sweet cloud of mindless meme browsing) that then my brain goes in overdrive and releases fighter hormones, so I can quickly finish with that stupid experiment and that I get my toy back quickly. I think they are measuring the wrong thing. A junkie can get very creative and intelligent just to get his/her next shot.

ashutoshgngwr 6y ago

Apparently the link submitted here requires you to pay $20 in order to access the content. I emailed one of the authors and he was unaware of this. In response, he added a PDF version of the article on his website. http://www.adrianfward.com/ http://www.adrianfward.com/ (third publication from the top as of now).

smartphone91643 6y ago

i thanked my last smartphone in Magic of Tidying Up induced tearful mania then crushed it with a small boulder. weirdest dreams ever as my brain went ohno there went my backup how does physical space work. since ditched pc, ereader, internet, and finally flip phone, going paper purist for 4 months. typing this now on an olympically defunct 3g numpad phone so listen up. it's a cruel lie that living without the stuff is hard. taking the plunge will take months and leave you weeping in the shower. or maybe i have a mind that naturally reacts strongly to it idunno nobody like that here right. the part that can take weeks of stressfull time work is deleting accounts. digital detox whoo sure great but imagine the freedom of having nothing to return to. all the Kondo insight maps over: does this device, login, file, data in the cloud somewhere bring me joy? my digital closet had millions of identifiable objects, taking up no less space for being virtual. there is aversion in the ambiguous task each represents. gonna drop social media? gotta at least consider you might need that squash recipe burried in chat. glance over every app and service you use and ask how do i live without it -and- where do i find the time and wheelbarrow to get myself out. more saliently, which of the people on the other side do i say bye to or ask for more intimate contact info? the dauntingness of unknowns can only be faced with the will to exit. the only ultimate fate of the unrefactorable is deletion. if you're even a little concerned about the tools you use robbing some magic alternative future for yourself, dont detox, switch.

hexbinencoded 6y ago

TL;DR: Smartphones with either productivity or socialization don't mix. I don't doubt it. During work, notes should be taken on paper and smartphones should be left away as a general guide. I also think the same should apply to social gatherings and meetings because the point of being with others hinges on attention. (Otherwise, it could've been done over email.) What does it say to others when someone doesn't appear to be listening or their speech slows because they're trying to read a notification?

cmoscoso 6y ago

All these people addicted to their phone. Glad I only use mine to call my drug dealer.