Phones Now Not Just Making You Mediocre

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Phone-induced Brain Drain Effect Cripples Actual Thinking: Study

TRH News Desk

New Delhi, March 21: Your phone is making you mediocre, rings Calvin C. Newport, author of ‘Digital Minimalism’. His claims find validations from studies that assert screen addictions crippling even basic thinking of the people.

Newport is a Professor of Computer Science at the Georgetown University in the US. His research confirmed behavioural anomalies in people using phones excessively.

“If you want to accomplish anything in life, you need to regain your attention — not fragment it and give it away,” said Jonathan Haidt, New York University Professor of Social Psychology, while commenting on Newport’s findings on X.

University of Chicago in a study found that “the mere presence of phone reduces cognitive capacity”. The Journal of the Association of the Consumer Research claimed: “Even when it’s turned off, face down on your desk… Your brain is actively working to resist picking it up. This brain drain effect leaves fewer resources for actual thinking.”

The study listed that an “average person spends a whopping 4 hours and 30 minutes on their phone daily”. Newport stated that phones “create powerful dopamine feedback loops; each notification triggers a craving for more interaction; this mirrors the reward system that drives addiction”.

In his ‘Digital Minimalism’, Newport advocates “use of technology only in ways that deeply support values while ruthlessly eliminating everything else”. “Set strict limits on non-essential apps. Less social media. Less mindless scrolling. Use your phone as a tool, not an escape,” he advocates.

He cites people expressing “feeling of a moderate behavioural addiction”. “You’ll hear the same thing from a gambler. When I’m away from being able to play, to make my bets or do whatever, I feel not myself,” adds Newport.

While Newport lists behavioural aberrations induced by screen addictions, parents in India are growing worried at teenagers’ cravings for internet. Post-Coronavirus pandemic, schools have made it a normal to hold online classes as and when they deem convenient.

Schools send notes and study materials which almost run to book length to send children glued to screens. The News Minute surveyed parents to find out what their children were seeing on internet, and the findings were stunning.

Internet is prompting the children to gambling websites. They are also being taken to pornographic contents. In nutshell, early teenagers now behave as adults.

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