With their wide range of features, we increasingly rely on our devices not only to stay connected, but also to help us with our daily activities, such as shopping or finding information.
While smartphones seem to improve productivity and make life easier in some areas, they can also lead to overconsumption and worsening cognitive decline if not used responsibly. Join us to explore the different ways that too much checking of your smartphone may promote cognitive decline and learn how we can better harness technology instead of being slaves to it.
The conclusions of the British Journal of Psychology study are disturbing and confirm the potentially dangerous effects of hyperconnection on our mental and physical health. The authors found that daily smartphone use, particularly viewing activities, was associated with an increased occurrence of cognitive impairments. This means that people who spent a considerable amount of time looking at their phones had higher levels of forgetfulness, poor concentration, and mental fog.
The study in detail.
The study examined the association between cell phone use and cognitive difficulties in a sample of 181 iPhone users from a local university. Participants began by completing a baseline survey that collected demographic information such as age, gender, monthly household income, and subjective socioeconomic status. Additionally, they filled out a daily diary for seven days, using the iOS Screen Time app to objectively track their screen time and smartphone viewing habits.
An assessment was carried out using a questionnaire on everyday memory (The Everyday Memory Questionnaire, EMQ-R). This scale was intended to capture participants’ experiences when it came to issues such as having a memory lapse, not remembering a word or involuntarily letting one’s mind wander, as well as leaving tasks unfinished due to ‘a distraction.
Participants also reported how many times a day they checked their phone and whether they faced any of seven types of stressors (discrimination, work or school stressors, work or school stressors, network, arguments, arguments avoided, stressors related to the house and others). They also completed daily assessments of positive and negative affect. After examining the results, Andree Hartanto and her colleagues found that people who checked their phones more often were more likely to experience cognitive failures than those who didn’t check their phones as often.
This suggests that excessive smartphone browsing is indeed distracting and increases cognitive load, which can lead to symptoms of cognitive fatigue. These results indicate that people should pay attention to how often they use their smartphones, especially when engaging in demanding activities like driving.
On the other hand, not all activities on your smartphone are created equal.
The study brought to light more than one important data. It showed that general smartphone use was not significantly related to everyday cognitive lapses. However, when participants used certain apps that focused on standard phone functionality, spending, entertainment, or health, these cognitive lapses decreased significantly. This suggests that a smartphone could be a useful tool to unleash mental capacities and allow us to focus on the task at hand if we know how to manage our uses intelligently.
We spend approximately five hours a day on our smartphones.
The State of Mobile in 2022 report found that the world collectively spent 3.8 trillion hours using their smartphones in 2021, which equates to an average of five hours per day for each user. These figures demonstrate how deeply connected we have become to our mobile devices and suggest why cognitive lapses may be more common in modern society.
The detrimental effect of smartphone use on cognition could be related to the distractions that digital technology represents, as well as its ability to reduce concentration due to multitasking. Smartphones also give us access to vast amounts of information, which can lead to overstimulation, resulting in higher rates of forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating.
To get the most out of our smartphones, we need to develop mindful practices for their use.
The most important step is to set realistic goals for our use of technology and stick to them. For example, if we decide to limit social media use to 30 minutes a day or check our emails only twice a day, we need to make sure we stick to that plan. Also, it is useful to take short breaks from Digital Detox from time to time in order to give our mind a chance to rest from the digital world.
We can also use our phones in a smart way by taking advantage of their useful functions, such as setting reminders for tasks or programming a downtime to limit your uses and alert you when the limit is exceeded. average limit. Once downtime is scheduled, most used apps will be grayed out until further notice. Additionally, disabling push notifications that can send unwanted distractions can be beneficial in allowing us to better control the use of our phones and prevent overuse.
