Bad news for people hoping to solve their workday procrastination by leaving their phone in a desk drawer: new research indicates you’ll probably still find something to distract you. According to researchers at the London School of Economics, the issue isn’t our electronic devices themselves, but the way our usage of gadgets has essentially rewired our brains.
“In my research I want to shift the discourse beyond device-centric debates. The smartphone itself is not the problem,” Maxi Heitmayer, the co-author of a study published March 27 in Frontiers in Computer Science, said in a statement. “It’s what we do with it and, frankly, the apps that generate and reinforce these habits.”
To investigate these interrelated issues, Heitmayer and collaborators asked 22 volunteers ranging in age from 22–31 to spend two, five-hour work shifts in a private, soundproof room. They were also asked to bring their everyday electronic devices, or at least their laptop and phone. The team didn’t request them to change their preferred notification settings on any device. Instead, they instructed participants to place their phone on their desk during one work day, then leave it on a desk about five feet away on the second day. Other than that, the volunteers were tasked with going about their normal work responsibilities. Meanwhile, researchers tallied up the frequency and length of time that participants paused to pursue something unrelated to work on their phones or computers.
The team’s data was clear: while volunteers looked at their phones less on the day they placed it further away from them, they simply replaced it with screen time on their computers. Regardless of choice of device, participants averaged about 3.5 hours of work versus roughly 1.3 hours of leisure time.
“The problem is not rooted within the device itself, but in the habits and routines that we have developed with our devices,” argued Heitmayer.
Increasing evidence indicates the addictive and gamified nature of apps and social media platforms can alter a user’s neural pathways and influence their overall wellbeing. As the team’s study helps illustrate, the ramifications extend beyond when and how often we use these devices—it’s why we use them. The result, said Heitmayer, is a “very unequal battle fought out every single day… when we use our phones.”
“The things inside phones that are the biggest attention sinks are developed by large corporations who greatly profit from our failure to resist the temptation to use them,” he said. “All of this is literally by design.”
Unfortunately, there is no single solution for our culture’s ongoing distraction dilemma. On a personal level, people can try strategies like scheduling automated routines that silence notifications during specific periods during the day, while also working on being more mindful of how much they use their devices. Heitmayer also believes better regulation and oversight is needed for the app and device makers themselves. This is particularly important when it comes to younger users.
“These devices are incredibly useful and can facilitate learning and creativity, but they come at a cost that most adults struggle to manage, so we simply cannot ignore this,” said Heitmayer.
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