The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World (The MIT Press)

by Adam Gazzaley

One hundred sixty three college students were brought into a lecture hall, with half being told to turn off their phone and store it and all other materials under their seat while remaining quiet and simply doing nothing. The other half of the students were given the same general instructions about storing materials out of sight and doing nothing, but they had their smartphones taken away and replaced with a claim check for later retrieval. Ten minutes later and then twice more during the hour-plus session, each student completed a paper-and-pencil measure of anxiety. The prediction was that the students holding a claim check for their phone would become anxious, and indeed they did—but no more so than the students whose phone was turned off and stored under the desk. More importantly, however, we found that the heaviest users of their smartphones—those who were younger and grew up with technology—showed increased anxiety after just ten minutes of not being able to use their phone, and their anxiety continued to increase across the hour as compared to those who used their phones less. This rise in anxiety is also evident in the prevalence of phantom pocket vibration syndrome.