Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

Picture this: You’re sitting at your desk, finally getting to that task that you’ve been putting off for ages. You’ve even put your phone in your bag and out of sight. Finally, you feel focused. You’re in a flow. But every once in a while, you feel the need to peek into that bag and check your phone. Maybe someone is trying to contact you? Maybe there’s an emergency! Despite these thoughts, you resist the urge and keep working. Do you think you’re having a productive work session?

Think again.

We believe that putting our phone face-side down on our desk, or away in our bag, is enough to prevent us from being distracted. However, a landmark study by Ward and colleagues has found that the mere presence of your smartphone, even if it’s out of your visual field, can be a major distraction to your brain, a concept known as “brain drain."

Ward et al. tested the “brain drain” hypothesis on 548 college students at the University of Texas. In the experiment, the students were divided into 3 groups and asked to complete a set of cognitive performance tests. Group 1 had their phones facing down on their desk, Group 2 had their phones in their bag, and Group 3 had their phones outside the room. Guess which group performed the best? The group that was required to put their phones in another room scored significantly higher than Groups 1 (phones facing down) and 2 (phones in a bag in the room). In fact, Ward noticed that the farther away their phone was from their workspace, the less of an impact it had on their attention. This indicates that even when people can successfully avoid checking their phones, the mere presence of the smartphone creates a “brain drain” and undermines their cognitive capabilities. Why?

Well, our brains can only focus on a few pieces of information at once. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with stimuli, our brains must prioritize what to focus on. We tend to pay more attention to stimuli that are the most ubiquitous and relevant to us. These days, smartphones fit the bill.

Smartphones have become integral to our daily lives. Connected to an endless supply of information, entertainment, and friends, we have become increasingly dependent on them. In fact, smartphone users engage with their devices an average of more than 150 times a day, starting from the moment they wake up to right before sleep, and even in the middle of the night (Perlow 2012; Andrews et al. 2015; dscout 2016). This means that youth are not focused on a task for more than a few minutes at a time, on average, without their attention being fragmented by phone checking. Their omnipresence and personal relevance to our everyday functioning mean that phones take up a huge portion of our attention, thus leaving less space for other things. In essence, an overreliance on smartphone use trains the brain to be inattentive and reinforces immediate gratification, as well as impairs one's ability to delay gratification, the very skills needed to excel in school, work, and life.

A meta-analysis pooling data from 22 studies examined the relationship between phone presence and our cognitive performance, to confirm if the “brain drain” hypothesis holds weight. Overall, the analysis confirmed the findings from Ward’s study: The farther away your phone is from you, the easier it is to concentrate.

This has huge implications for productivity in school, work, and daily life. Few stimuli are so personally relevant and perpetually present as a smartphone. By connecting us to a seemingly endless hub of information, smartphones have helped us manage and enhance our daily lives. We can all agree that smartphones aren't going anywhere. However, we must ask ourselves how our dependence on these devices can affect our ability to think and function in the world off-screen. With our phones constantly battling for our attention, how do we prevent them from negatively impacting our cognitive performance at work and our academic performance in school?

Perhaps more of a balance is needed. In schools, students are increasingly distracted by their phones during class time, undermining their learning. Countries like France, Italy, Finland, and The Netherlands, as well as some states in the U.S. and provinces in Canada, have banned smartphone use in elementary schools and colleges, which promotes greater focus and attentiveness during classes. For adults, setting times throughout the day when we can go smartphone-free can help us improve our productivity. We should also educate ourselves on the impact of phone usage on our brains so we can make more informed decisions when trying to complete an assignment or finish our homework. Most importantly, the next time you’re trying to get some work done, completing a school assignment, or studying for a test or exam, try putting your phone outside the room and not simply turning it upside down on the desk or putting it in a desk drawer right beside you.