The researchers experimented with two conditions, with the first one being putting the phone on a desk within easy reach. The other condition was placing the phone 1.5 meters away on another desk. The only difference between these two conditions was the distance between the smartphone and the participants. The results found that putting the smartphone away reduced phone use but the participants started distracting themselves by other means, like using their laptops instead of mobile phones.
It didn’t matter what the placement of the phone was because it didn’t put any difference in focus and the time spent on work and leisure activities remained the same. The study also found that the participants used smartphones as the preferred devices for distraction because they provided a connection with work and loved ones. As smartphones have everything from alarm clocks to navigation systems and from sources of information to music players, people prefer using them over other devices. Even if smartphones aren’t serving any purpose, people can still use social media for entertainment. Even though computers can still serve all these purposes, they aren’t that easy to use and portable.
The researchers suggest some ways to reduce distractions at work, such as silencing or scheduling notifications. However, they also admit that avoiding complete phone use is impossible and highly unlikely because people are completely dependent on their phones and cannot resist them, especially the younger ones.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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