Are Phones Too Distracting : The Truth of What Happens To Your Brain

“Keep your phone away” is one of the most frequent advice I have heard as a student. While this may make sense for some people, some of us depend a lot on technology, and phones have their own benefit. With the ongoing pandemic, most of us are stuck with our distance learning programs. I, especially, depend a lot on my iPad (though not so much on my phone) to get my work done, and I have to say that it has been working out well for me. This makes wonder, if an iPad works well, then why wouldn’t a phone? It makes me question whether keeping the phone away will actually help my studies or if it’s just a myth. So, I did this research to figure out the answer.

In my research, I found it is in fact beneficial to separate yourself from your phone while studying. When we are learning something, we are using up our limited mental resources to understand the information and transfer it to our long-term memory. When we have a phone next to us, our brain classifies the frequent notifications and emails appearing on our phone as a primary goal and allocate a considerable amount of our mental resources to pay attention to it. This leaves us with a limited amount of mental resource available for studies. Even if the mobile phone is switched off or faced down, it was found that the brain still allowed a considerable amount of resources to pay attention to it. Therefore, it is best to separate yourself from your phone during your study time.

Phones Cause Reallocation of Our Limited Mental Resources

As I mentioned before, our brain has a finite amount of mental resources that can be assigned for attentional control and other cognitive processes. This means our brain can only process a small amount of information that is made available to it. The specific processes we are concerned with are called that working memory and fluid intelligence. Working memory is the cognitive system that supports complex cognition by actively selecting, maintaining, and processing information relevant to our current tasks and goals. As we discussed in a previous post, the working memory can only hold up to to 7 concepts at a time, and they usually only last for about 20 seconds. Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, represents the ability to reason and solve unique problems. Once again, you cannot reason based on something that does not exist in the working memory; i.e., since your brain can only use a limited amount of information, we can use only this information for reasoning and problem-solving (source).

When you’re using your mobile phone, or having it around you while studying, your brain allocate some of these limited resources to pay attention to your phone. Allocation of these resources in our brain is based on certain stimulus that determine goal “relevance”, which is giving preferential attention to temporarily relevant stimuli, such as those associated with a current task or decision. It is supported by working memory. Relevant stimuli that you use frequently may automatically attract attention, even when the goals associated with these stimuli are not active. Since mobile phones have become a part of our day-to-day lives, researchers theorise that the working memory considers it a relevant stimulus that can automatically attract our attention even if it’s switched off (source).

This means having our mobile phones nearby will cause an automatic allocation of our mental resources towards the phone, and since the allocation of mental resources is like a zero-sum game, the more you allocate to a different task, the less you have available to use for your studies. Inevitably, this results in diminished efficiency while studying and may affect your results. 

What Are The Effects of Having Your Phone Nearby?

The result of reduced allocation of resources for learning can materialise in 2 ways: one where are you are actively using your phone to do something that is not directly relevant to the task at hand, and another situation where you don’t use your phone, but your mental resources are automatically allotted towards your phone subconsciously. To help you understand this better, we can consider some practical examples found through research (source).

Constant Notifications and Distracting Social Media Apps Are Bad For You

Nowadays we have notifications for everything, from video games to WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms. The constant noise made by these notifications draw a considerable amount of our attention. Researchers say its analogical to someone calling our name (source). However busy you are, won’t you respond to someone calling out your name?

There is a slight technicality in the above process where your attention may not be divided if you are doing something on your phone that is relevant to the topic you are studying. After all, studying is studying regardless of whether you do it from a phone or a book. Because of this, some people may argue that they only use apps that are relevant for their studies, but research has found that 60% of the apps open in student’s phone’s are not applicable to what they’re doing at the moment. It’s simply a fact that a majority of the students use their phone to navigate social media platforms rather than use it for educational purposes (source).

For the student to consider a mobile phone to be an adequate learning device, they must consider it easy to use. Unfortunately, most students found it a baffling task to access study material on their mobile phones. Compared to laptops and tablets, the small screen of a phone is unfavourable. A survey even found that 70% of the students did not consider Smart phone learning to be easy. If that is the case, the only purpose served by having a mobile phone during a study section is to cause distraction through calls, apps, notifications, and messages (source).

Even Having The Phone Nearby Can Affect You

The allocation of mental resources towards your mobile phone is not just limited to situations where you are actively using it. Even if you switch off your phone or place it upside-down on a table, your attention will still be diminished. One study found that even when all the notifications on a phone are turned off, people still have a desire to be a part of the broad social and informational network that they are currently cut off from. This results in the automatic allocation of mental resources towards your phone, which inevitably affect your learning. So, it’s not just the constant notification and all the beeping that divides your attention. The mere presence of a mobile phone next to you is enough to affect your attention (see this and this).

Using a Phone For an MCQ Test May Actually Reduce Your Scores

Having a test where you are allowed to look up the answers on your phone is like a dream come true for most students. Thanks to the pandemic, I’m sure at least some of us have experienced something similar. But did you know that using your phone to find answers may actually result in you losing marks?

In a study conducted based on MCQ tests, It was found that students who did not use their phone had an average score of 66% while students who were heavily distracted by their phones (by texting or searching for answers) only had an average score of 52%. There is a full letter grade difference between the 2 groups. Clearly preparing for the test is much more efficient than searching for the answer or texting your friends to find the answer at the moment of the test (source).

You Recall Less Information When Using Your Phone

Like I mentioned before, the working memory has a limited capacity. If you’re trying to recall something or reason out something, it’s best to keep your phone away. Studies have found that people who were actively texting recalled significantly less information than people who were not texting. The recall rates were no joke with the group that did not use their phone recalling 51% more information than the group that where texting on their phone. So, the next time you talk to someone, it’s better to put aside your phone and give the person your full attention (source).

Phones Affect Note Taking

When sitting in an online class, it’s tempting to often drift off and look at your social media every now and then, but research has found that this habit can affect the amount of details you note down. As we have discussed in a previous post, note taking is not very helpful in general, but they can be very useful when attending lectures. With that in mind, it is important to understand that drifting off to your phone during a lecture can negatively affect the amount of information you take in. A study found that people who are not using their phones were significantly more likely to record more details about the lecture dance students are very busy texting or browsing on their phones (source). 

It’s better to focus on making excellent reference material and leave your Internet browsing for later.

Phones Affect Comprehension

Studying can often be boring and mentally taxing, which is why people often have the temptation to use their phone to take a break. If you are using the Pomodoro technique described in my article on self-regulated learning, it is best to keep off the use of your phone till break time. Using your phone in between study sessions can drastically reduce your comprehension. If you are increasingly distracted by the use of your phone, it reduces your ability to self-regulate. This will eventually affect your performance because self-regulation is important for learning (source).

The More You Depend on Your Mobile Phone, The Greater The Effect

It’s turns out these phenomena does not affect everyone equally. The more a person depends on his/her phone on a day-to-day basis, the more a person suffers in its presence. Similarly, if you are a person who rarely ever uses your phone or depend comparatively less on it, you are less likely to be affected by its presence. I can verify this through personal experience. My phone started developing battery issues recently, and it hardly lasts one hour. But, I was not in a hurry to buy a new phone because ever since the pandemic started I have noticed that the use of my phone has considerably decreased. I only use my phone when I need to make a call or check a text. In my experience, my phone is always physically proximate to me but I barely ever use it, which prevents me from being distracted by it (source).

What Are The Possible Fixes?

Now that you know the dangers of using your phone while studying, you may be interested in learning the methods to fix this problem. Most of these are very typical and you maybe able to come up with a more creative solution. Let me know if you have something new in mind. 

That said, let’s discuss the solutions:

Separation

The most commonly advised method is to separate yourself from your phone. Studies have found this to work, but only if your phone is nowhere near you. It advisable to keep it in a different room or leave it with a family or friend. Basically, keep it in a place where you cannot easily and immediately access it. Pre-defined periods of separation like these will help you reduce interruption and increase access to your cognitive capabilities (source). 

Time Management Methods That Allocate Time For Phone Usage  

Studies have found that mobile phones do not affect the performance on self-paced tasks because you can start off exactly where you left. This means allowing for distractions is fine as long as you are planning them. If you go by the Pomodoro technique and allocate 25 minutes of study followed by five minutes of phone usage, you can restart your learning process exactly where you left off without interrupting the process. This might nullify the effect of mobile phone on your studies (source).

Self-Regulate Through Self-Monitoring

There are people who only use the most basic phone (only used for calling) to avoid interruptions, and there are even people who dismantle their phone for a short while to avoid its negative effects. But these steps seem a bit too much. Another efficient alternative would be to use apps that help you track your usage or help you limit the use of your smart phone for a particular period. This way, you can track how much you use your phone and form your study strategy accordingly. For example, if it seems like you use your phone too many times in the middle of study sessions, it’s better to leave the phone with someone you know and ask them to not give it to you until you are done with your studies. If you find that your usage is minimal, you can just allot specific time to your usage and you won’t be much affected by the presence of your phone (source).

Conclusion – Best to Keep it Away

Phones today contain amazing technology that can be really useful for education. But the benefits provided by phones fall pale in comparison to laptops or tablets. Use of phones reduces the limited amount of mental resources that are available to use while studying. This can lead to poor academic results. It’s better to separate yourself from your phone during your study sessions.