ISSUES
: The Internet of Things
Chapter 1: Digital issues
11
Separating a student from their iPhone
can be bad for their health and for their
brain
An article from
The Conversation
.
By Gary W. Lewandowski Jr Chair/Professor of Psychology, Monmouth University
I
f you forgot your phone at home,
you may get a sense of being
incomplete in some way, the itch
you just can’t scratch each time
you reach for your absentee phone.
Our phones have become such an
integral part of our lives that they feel
like they are part of us. Your phone is
where your mind goes during a less
than captivating business meeting,
a boring class or a family function.
Surely you are missing something –
a text, an Instagram update, a tweet
from Kanye. The possibilities are
endless.
Can being away from your phone
really have a negative effect on you?
To answer that question, researchers
advertised a study which allegedly
focused on completing word
searches and blood pressure. The
advert attracted 40 college students
who arrived individually and were
fitted with a blood-pressure cuff,
then worked for five minutes finding
the 50 US states within a large word-
search puzzle. The more states they
found, the more money they would
have a chance to win.
Participantswere randomly assigned
to either complete the puzzle either
with or without their iPhone. Those
in the ‘no iPhone’ group were
informed by the researcher that
the phone caused interference with
the blood pressure equipment. The
researcher, making sure the phone’s
ringer remained ‘on’, then placed
the phone in an adjoining cubicle
about four feet away, where the
participants could still easily see
and hear their phone.
Three minutes into the word-search
exercise the researcher called the
participant’s phone and allowed
it to ring six times before hanging
up – which took approximately 20
seconds. At the four-minute mark,
researchers took blood-pressure
measurements and then stopped
the participant at five minutes.
Those allowed to keep their phones
were asked to switch them to
‘silent mode’ while working on the
word search. They had their blood
pressure measured at four minutes,
and were stopped at five minutes.
The participants completed two
different word searches, once with
their phone and once without, after
which they were asked to choose
statements that matched their
levels of anxiety (for example: “I feel
tense”) and the extent to which the
iPhone was part of their sense of self
(for example: “My iPhone is central
to my identity”).
As predicted, participants felt
their iPhone was a greater part of
their identity when it was in their
possession as opposed to when
they were separated from it. When
participants were away from their
phones the results indicate that they
felt greater anxiety, had higher blood
pressure, increased heart rate and
performed less proficiently on the
word search task (in terms of the
number of states they could find).
The researchers also looked to see
whether amount of daily iPhone
use by participants influenced the
results, but found there was no
difference between those who said
they use their phone a lot in their
everyday lives and those who only
use their phone a little.
Fear of missing out
The results suggest that being
separated from your ringing iPhone
has negative consequences for your
cognitive performance, your feelings
of anxiety – and can even effect you
physiologically.
The findings on the detrimental
effects on cognitive performance
are consistent with other research
on how mobile phones and texting
affect a driver’s ability to pay
attention. These results are also
consistent with other findings that
the mere presence of a mobile
phone can undermine face-to-face
conversation and result in less trust.
There are caveats: the first is that
the researchers only used 40
participants when a larger sample
would have made the results more
convincing. The use of college
students may be particularly
problematic for the interpretation of
these results, as college students
may be more attached to their phone
than the average person. Finally,
the study only focused on iPhones
and iPhone users, but it is likely that
these results would apply to users of
other smartphones as well.
This study provides some compelling
initial evidence that our relationship
with our phones is likely to be
different from the relationships we
have with other electronics – such
as our TV or laptop. Given the fact
that an increasing number of people
are using them more and more,
it would pay for us to understand
these phenomena better.
16 January 2015
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The above information is
reprinted with kind permission
from
The Conversation
. Please
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for further information.
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The Conversation Trust (UK)
