Do you find yourself frequently forgetting and losing stuff? Daydreaming while somebody's talking to you or bumping into someone while walking? A new study says these behaviours might be caused by too much time spent on smartphones and the internet.
Huffington Post reports psychologists from De Monfort University in Leicester, England found out that "cognitive failures" such as inattention, forgetfulness and lacking awareness of surroundings may be linked to excessive use of mobile phones and the internet.
"I was very surprised that both problematic mobile phone use and internet addiction was so strongly correlated to... cognitive failures," psychologist and lead author of the study, Dr. Lee Hadlington, told Huff Post in an email. "It really was an eye-opener."
Reserchers conducted the study by gathering 210 British smartphone users from age 18 to 65. According to findings, the average use of mobile technology and internet among respondents is about 23 hours per week. Participants answered a series of questions concerning the amount of time spent on their smartphones and internet, as well as their behaviours relating to memory, perception and motor function.
Results show that there is a significant correlation between the amount of time spent online and mobile phones with their probability to experience cognitive failures such as memory errors, silly blunders and inattention during conversations.
"Aspects of mobile technology are creating a situation where many individuals, who may be prone to distraction and lack of focus, find the lure of technology too hard to resist," he added.
Although this might be possible, researchers admit it isn't clear yet on whether excessive use of smartphones and internet actually cause these cognitive failures. Considering a wide-range of factors, Hadlington, however, is still convinced that too much time spent in the virtual world affects people in real life.
"The Internet is great, mobile phones are great," he wrote. "But there is a point at which we need to sit back, log off and really start to think about how technology is impacting on our capacity to focus."
According to researchers, people might at least spend less time online to focus more on their actual daily lives.
