Turning Phones on Silent May Increase Phone Checking [* AC Friendly *]
hubie writes:
'Common sense' advice to halt smartphone distraction may actually be misguided:
Telling people to turn their smartphones off, or set them on silent as a strategy to ease distractions or avoid addictive internet behaviors may backfire on some folks, according to Penn State researchers.
In a study, the researchers report that people checked their phones more often when their devices were in silent mode. They added that those who scored high in "Fear-of-Missing-Out" and "Need-to-Belong" personality tests checked their phones even more when silencing them and, in some cases, stayed on phones longer.
"The general, commonsensical approach to overcoming addiction or any kind of substance overuse or dependency is by cutting back on that substance," said Sundar, who is also an affiliate of Penn State's Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. "The industry approach to curbing smartphone overuse has generally been to try and figure out ways to cut off your access to phone, or to reduce the number of notifications or to give you the option of turning off the sound. While these are commonsensical approaches, we really do not know if they are psychologically effective. This seems to be one of those instances when cutting back can actually backfire or boomerang."
[...] People with high levels of FoMO checked their phones about 50 times a day when the vibration signal was on. In silent mode, though, the number of checks soared to about 120 checks a day for those participants. The researchers also found that people with high levels of FoMO stayed on phones significantly longer if their phones were in silent mode.
People with high levels of the Need-to-Belong trait did not pick up their phone more when their phones were in silent mode, however they did stay on phones longer if their phones were either on silent or vibration-only mode.
"Imagine, in class, the instructor tells the students to turn off their phones, we think that now everyone is paying attention to the instructor," said Sundar. "But, what our research is the opposite, in that they are preoccupied thinking about all the things that they're missing, so it might be even more distracting."
Journal Reference:
MengqiLiao and S. ShyamSundar, Sound of silence: Does Muting Notifications Reduce Phone Use?, Comput Hum Behav, 134, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107338
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