5 ms·
The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity (2017)
- macintux 2y agoI have found that since I started using an Apple Watch and customized the notifications on it to only urgent ones, and silenced my iPhone (I don't think I've had a ringer turned on for...5 years? Longer?), I'm actually more in danger of accidentally leaving my phone behind than I am potentially distracted by it. In fact, were it not for the camera (and the fact that I dearly love taking photos) I would regularly leave home with just my Watch.
- Zambyte 2y agoRegarding the camera, I recommend buying a dedicated camera if you can allocate the funds. I bought a Sony ZV-1 as a pocketable compliment to my DSLR, and it has ended up being the camera I use the most - even more than my phone.
- macintux 2y agoI have…6 or 7 medium format cameras, a 4x5 view camera, a film SLR, plus a DSLR and a compact digital or two. The iPhone is vastly more convenient than any of them. I’ll often use something else when I’m going out specifically to take photos, but the iPhone is always with me for spontaneous shots.
- Zambyte 2y agoMy point is that I carry my camera in lieu of a smart phone. Your iPhone is not more convenient if you don't have it.
- h0l0cube 2y agoSub-compact cameras are still a thing. And by comparison use actual glass for their lenses, have real telephoto capabilities, and won’t distort your pictures with AI hallucinated nonsense
- macintux 2y agoI love a real camera, but I’d guesstimate 75% of my favorite “art” photos are from iPhones, stretching back at least 10 years. They’re genuinely good cameras.
- h0l0cube 2y agoSure, but if you’re only reason for taking the phone is for the camera, it’s not on the same par as a dedicated camera with a decent sized lens and sensor (esp. in low light), and compacts fit in most pockets. But if you really want a iPhone camera without the distractions, you can just get one second hand and leave out the sim card
- marcus_holmes 2y agoI tried this, and found that all my photos stayed on the camera. The shitty camera on my Fairphone takes objectively worse photos, but I can send them to my wife or WhatsApp group(s) immediately. So they're massively more useful despite being worse.
- h0l0cube 2y agoWell if OP wants to share photos but also not have the distractions of social media, they’re back to muting notifications and relying on their own willpower to not open the apps. Most cameras have a dedicated app for image transfer and browsing, but of course it’s going to be a more clunky experience
- FpUser 2y agoWhile I do not leave a phone behind and use it for many things (not social media) I still often carry my old trusty OMD EM-5 and sometimes feel sorry that I sold my Nikon D800
- Brajeshwar 2y agoHello, brother from a different mother. I read this and, “someone is describing me.” I have my phone on silent mode for over 10+ years (I remember, because I wrote an article in 2014). Since the Phone 6+ (or so), I have made my iPhone as the Camera. However, of late, I have taken on a keen interest in getting back to an actual camera and I’m likely to start soon. I’ve also kinda started a white lie when people start probing into why I don’t do most of phone calls - “I’ve a condition where I can’t do VOICE on the phone.” It is kinda of a lie but also not NOT a truth.
- thejarren 2y agoI’ve been skeptical of secondary dumb phones for a while, Given that they are so lacking and many of the useful features, I need on a daily basis. That said it’s become clear to me that even different profiles on my phone don’t solve the problem of distraction In the same way that putting my phone in another room/using a different device does. To speculate a bit: if I were able to use generative UI To customize the experience on my phone, I could enable useful tools like posting to social media, while disabling distracting features like scrolling through the newsfeed. In this way, I could separate my consumption and creation time for more than I can now.
- Mathnerd314 2y ago(2017). E.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24519684 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24519684
- pbj1968 2y agoPhotos of everyone clutching their phones now are going to look as cringe as those photos of people holding cigarettes in the 70s. “Why couldn’t grandma put it down for the picture?” Indeed.
- LeoPanthera 2y agoThis is absurd, no it won't, just as people clutching newspapers don't look cringe now. https://i.redd.it/rgy54u9x37x71.jpg https://i.redd.it/rgy54u9x37x71.jpg
- _heimdall 2y agoMobile phones and newspapers are very different. I think he GP was making the comparison based on both phones and cigarettes being addictive. What's the comparison with newspapers that makes one productive of the other?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- karaterobot 2y agohttps://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/bVb_5f6XxD4UCVvVMSMQZRzrbUA=/1200x800/media/img/photo/2018/11/smartphones-are-everywhere/s01_RTS1EOPQ/original.jpg https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/bVb_5f6XxD4UCVvVMSMQZRzr... Tell me which one already looks dumber.
- picture 2y agoThis is AI generated which makes it more uncanny than it needs to be. But honestly, what's wrong with wanting to document something by taking picture or video? It's a natural thing that humans want to do, whether by writing it down or sketching picture. Digital photography and videography has now just become much more accessible due to lower cost and near ubiquity of high resolution imaging devices.
- karaterobot 2y ago
- gloriousgouda 2y agoI cut out social media about 10 months ago. News and that's about it. I tend to be alone still in rooms with other humans physically present. They're busy talking to others virtually. It's shocking how few people actually look up anymore.
- justahuman74 2y agoI found that nothing in the news was really actionable for me, so I cut it out
- owl57 2y ago> nothing in the news was really actionable for me A month ago, I was reading the news of my country of birth to decide if it looks stable enough to go there and then get out without surprises at the border. Two months ago, I was reading the news of my country of residence to choose when to go to the shower, trying to avoid running to the shelter naked. Hell, I might consider relocation to your country.
- dotnet00 2y agoI mean, it's obviously different if you're somewhere that the news has directly actionable info. Just like how someone who doesn't otherwise care about the news will probably keep track of weather news during storm season in their area.
- purple-leafy 2y agoSame here, I only have hackernews. Everyone on public transport is heads glued to screens. Sad. Same with the beaches
- wkat4242 2y agoAre those actual friends or just random people in eg a waiting room or public transport? If so, expect that they use the smartphone not only to entertain themselves but also to signal to you that they're not interested in talking. Before the smartphone this role was taken up by the Walkman. Before that the newspaper. It's not really a tech issue. It's a human thing.
- Mathnerd314 2y agohttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691822002323#:~:text=Using%20the%20same%20tasks%20and,go%2Fno%2Dgo%20task https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182.... > Using the same tasks and conditions as in Ward et al.'s (2017) second experiment, the present study found that the “brain drain” effect did not replicate: there was no difference between smartphone location conditions on performance on either the o-span task or the go/no-go task. Fake study, move along
- rhelz 2y agoInteresting. I wonder if it had anything to do with this little tidbit: >All analyses in experiment 1 include a “Week” factor to account for variation across research assistants; this factor does not interact with Phone Location in any analysis (all F < 1.27, all p > .28). What was the variation? What was the factor? Why was it only needed in experiment 1 and not in the rest of the experiments? Are we really supposed to believe that in 2008, some turtle-necked evil genius permanently impaired the entire world?
- yamrzou 2y agoFair enough. It is one replication attempt, so that makes it even. Jonathan Haidt mentions the same in his book The Anxious Generation but lists other similar studies: > I note that one attempt to replicate the study did not find that phone location affected performance (Ruiz Pardo & Minda, 2022). But other studies have found that when phones are visible, they have disruptive effects. See Dwyer et al. (2018); Tanil & Young (2020); Skowronek et al. (2023).
- Mathnerd314 2y ago> Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions > those without smartphones had higher recall accuracy compared to those with smartphones. These seem reasonable. But they have little to do with this study, they are explained by competing attention and that smartphones also substitute for rote memorization. > the mere presence of a smartphone results in lower performance on a concentration and attention test This is more interesting. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10249922/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10249922/ It was conducted via videoconference though, so I wonder how much attention was devoted simply to the videoconference. And there was no effect of smartphone dependence.
- camillomiller 2y agoWe are in dire need of strict overreaching regulations about what apps and notifications can and cannot do. For example, it should be imposed by law that notifications can’t be used for advertising. I NEED to have my airline app’s notifications on, but no, I don’t need to know once a day about the “incredible” Cancun weekend getaway deals. In the same way, it’s clear and established that social media apps’ UX-features such as infinite scroll are devastating for our mental and somewhat physical health. They leverage a fundamental brain pattern, just like nicotine in cigarettes creates addiction. We need mandatory splash screens with advice on all this when we open Instagram or TikTok. And we should impose legal limits on features like infinite scroll or pull to refresh. I would like that Europe’s penchant for hyper regulation would lead the way in this field, instead of just pushing for more blatant favoritism towards shitty companies like Spotify just because they’re European.
- nnx 2y agoHow about disabling notifications or even uninstalling apps that you feel abuse their notification powers? An airline do that kind of crap, let them know and book another airline next time. They all do the same kind of crap? Well, the apps are not required to ever fly, at least not yet. I’m not sure why this has to be a govern me harder kind of thing…
- camillomiller 2y agoWell, I can’t. The “free” market does not have that flexibility and for minor airports i have to fly to to visit my family there is only one airline I can book. That said, ALL airlines do that because they can’t avoid leveling up with their competitors marketing so the choice you mention doesn’t actually exist. Considering that our consumer behavior can actually steer decisions in a corporation is a rather naïve take on the problem…
- SoftTalker 2y agoI would guess the presence of a bottle of bourbon would also reduce available congnitive capacity in an alcoholic.
- jamal-kumar 2y agoAt least bourbon increases the chances of someone breaking their phone
- hnthrowaway0328 2y agoLet's get a dumbphone and use that one in a Carmackian hermit learning session.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ChrisArchitect 2y ago(2017) Some discussion then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14639967 Including some comments on the paper's flawed research: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14645120 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14645120
- wkat4242 2y agoOn the other hand, I would argue that having 24/7 access to an Encyclopedia, translator, the most abandoned calculators, up to date world map, reasoning engine and simply basic access to the world's knowledge makes us a hell of a lot more effective if not smarter. Even if the negative effects are real and measurable, it's going to take a LOT to displace all the positives to make this a net negative addition to humanity.
- adamsilkey 2y ago> Because the same finite pool of attentional resources supports both attentional control and other cognitive processes, resources recruited to inhibit automatic attention to one’s phone are made unavailable for other tasks, and performance on these tasks will suffer. This to me, seems the key insight of the article. The phone represents a constant drain on our attention as we try to _not_ focus on it, like a slow battery drain.
- BenFranklin100 2y agoI skimmed the paper, and while superficially legitimate, this just doesn’t pass the smell test. I suspect p-hacking. I would be surprised if this study replicates. Related, I do believe smartphones are a distraction, which is why I opted for an Apple Watch Ultra II with a LTE connection. Paired with AirPods Pro, it has the benefits of connectivity (calls, texts, emails, music, appt reminders, electronic payment, etc…), but is too inconvenient of a form factor to mindlessly scroll.
- senderista 2y agoI gimped my smartphone to avoid spending all my time on it but I still don't buy the premise. Would love to learn about replication attempts.
- purple-leafy 2y agoAnyway, for someone trying to minimise distractions and already with no social media… Is a dumb phone a good idea? I’m mainly just worried about passwords