Your Smartphone is Inhibiting Your Intellectual Potential
The presence of your phone, alone, drops productivity for individuals by a significant amount.
The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin recently conducted a study that found your smart phone may be decreasing your intellect by just being in your presence. The research group conducted an experiment with 800 smartphone users to see how well they were able to complete tasks, even when not using their smartphones. The first group was given tasks where their cognitive retention was tested through a series of exams, and were also instructed to put their phone somewhere in the room (pocket, desk, bag, etc.) and on silent. The second group was asked to complete the same tests with their phone in another room. After the tests were completed by the two groups, the researchers found that the group whose phone was not in the room fared far better on the exams than the group whose phones were in the same room.
These results are rather astounding, and suggest that the mere presence of a phone in the room can significantly impair one's cognitive ability. The data also suggested a linear trend in which as the phone became more apparent, the person's cognitive ability decreased. The researchers also found, through primary screening, that those who were more smartphone dependent fared far worse than their less dependent counterparts. So what can you do if you find yourself more dependent on your smartphone than usual? Maybe you should go for a run or a good high intensity workout where there's no time to get out your phone, and you're actively improving memory retention at the same time.
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