research-article

"Silence Your Phones": Smartphone Notifications Increase Inattention and Hyperactivity Symptoms

Authors:

Kostadin Kushlev,

Elizabeth W. DunnAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1011 - 1020

https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858359

Published: 07 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

As smartphones increasingly pervade our daily lives, people are ever more interrupted by alerts and notifications. Using both correlational and experimental methods, we explored whether such interruptions might be causing inattention and hyperactivity-symptoms associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) even in people not clinically diagnosed with ADHD. We recruited a sample of 221 participants from the general population. For one week, participants were assigned to maximize phone interruptions by keeping notification alerts on and their phones within their reach/sight. During another week, participants were assigned to minimize phone interruptions by keeping alerts off and their phones away. Participants reported higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity when alerts were on than when alerts were off. Higher levels of inattention in turn predicted lower productivity and psychological well-being. These findings highlight some of the costs of ubiquitous connectivity and suggest how people can reduce these costs simply by adjusting existing phone settings.

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Bellini DMascia MConti RPenna M(2025)Smartphone overuse and distraction: which relationship with general well-being across different generations?BMC Public Health10.1186/s12889-024-21269-z25:1Online publication date: 3-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-21269-z
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Index Terms

"Silence Your Phones": Smartphone Notifications Increase Inattention and Hyperactivity Symptoms
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2016

6108 pages

ISBN:9781450333627

DOI:10.1145/2858036

General Chairs:
Jofish Kaye
Yahoo
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Allison Druin
University of Maryland / National Park Service
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Program Chairs:
Cliff Lampe
University of Michigan
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Dan Morris
Microsoft
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Juan Pablo Hourcade
University of Iowa

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Published: 07 May 2016

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CHI'16: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 7 - 12, 2016

California, San Jose, USA

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CHI '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 565 of 2,435 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02451-3
Bellini DMascia MConti RPenna M(2025)Smartphone overuse and distraction: which relationship with general well-being across different generations?BMC Public Health10.1186/s12889-024-21269-z25:1Online publication date: 3-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-21269-z
Ma LJiang Q(2024)Swiping more, thinking less: Using TikTok hinders analytic thinkingCyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace10.5817/CP2024-3-118:3Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2024-3-1
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