Are Smartphones Making Us Stupid, or Are We Just Cooked?
In the 5th episode of Antisocial Scientists, Diego decides to spice things up by leaving his phone in another room. Why? Because it turns out that just having your phone nearby uses up a chunk of your unconscious attention, essentially draining your brain’s RAM even when it’s completely switched off. The hosts break down a few studies, including Ward et al. (2017), which tested how phone placement affects fluid intelligence and working memory. Justin tries one of the memory tasks live on the podcast and proceeds to fail the math portion spectacularly. They also look at a tedious letter-finding test done with German participants over Zoom, which found that having your phone present makes your processing speed about 10% slower. But the real concern, this drain on cognitive capacity pushes you into System 1 heuristic thinking, which might mean that having your phone on your desk might actually make you more likely to fall for the manosphere?
Then, Justin admits he finally did some reading and tackled a chunk of Jonathan Haidt’s bestseller, The Anxious Generation. Despite his initial bias against Haidt’s “shadow intellectual dark web” vibes, Justin begrudgingly admits the guy makes a compelling, well-written argument about how smartphones are contributing to Gen Z attentional deficits and socializing issues. They dive into longitudinal data showing that heavy media multitasking behavior could be growing ADHD symptoms over time. But while Haidt’s solution is to send kids outside to do unsupervised, risky things at summer camp, Justin argues that being an “inside kid” is perfectly fine as long as you limit screen time. After all, without being inside kids, they wouldn’t have a podcast.
So, are we permanently cooked? Justin and Diego lean towards harm reduction rather than going full luddite. While boomers scrolling Facebook reels might be beyond saving, the rest of us can take small steps, like putting phones in phone farms during class, using a smartwatch (the vape of the smoking world), or just leaving the phone in your bag while you work. Keep your phone, know the risks, and do what you want.
Mentioned Literature
Clayton, R. B., Leshner, G., & Almond, A. (2015). The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, and Physiology. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20(2), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12109
Hadar, A., Hadas, I., Lazarovits, A., Alyagon, U., Eliraz, D., & Zangen, A. (2017). Answering the missed call: Initial exploration of cognitive and electrophysiological changes associated with smartphone use and abuse. PLOS ONE, 12(7), e0180094. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180094
Skowronek, J., Seifert, A., & Lindberg, S. (2023). The mere presence of a smartphone reduces basal attentional performance. Scientific Reports, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36256-4
Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154. https://doi.org/10.1086/691462
Chapters
- 00:00 — Spicing Up the Podcast & Phone RAM
- 01:46 — Ward et al. (2017) & Justin Fails Basic Math
- 08:01 — The Mere Presence Effect (Off vs. Silent)
- 15:15 — The Tedious German Zoom Test
- 18:58 — Dual Process Theory & Falling for the Manosphere
- 21:20 — Justin Reads The Anxious Generation
- 25:40 — Touching Grass vs. Inside Kids
- 27:25 — Are We Cooked? Harm Reduction & Boomers
- 35:40 — Outro
Subscribe
Spotify | YouTube | RSS
Contact: diego.garaialde@ucd.ie