The Effects That Phones Have On The Brain Summary

Article Summary of the Effects that Phones have on the Brain
In the article titled “How Smartphones Hijacks Our Minds” (Carr, 2017), the author discusses how the continuous usage and dependence on phones may actually be diminishing intellects. Carr uses various research articles to highlight the different ways that the use of smartphones affects the brain and the brain’s ability to concentrate even when we are not using our phones. We have become so addicted to the phone that it continues to affect the brain even when it is not being used, in one of the research cited, a study conducted in a Journal of Experimental psychology of 166 participants proved that when a phone beeped or buzzed while the participants were performing a challenging
Today phones are more than just ways to speak to other people, they provide so many functions, they can be used to take pictures or videos, go on the internet, get the latest news, and so much more that it is becoming increasingly difficult to put down for too long. This is something that I have personally observed in myself, especially in term of ability to focus on a task. One of the many cases where my phone has repeatedly affected my ability to focus is whenever I try to study and my phone is nearby, I find myself reaching for my phone majority of the time that I end up having to spend a longer time studying than I would otherwise have if I did not stop to use my phone. As a University student, one easy way to observe how the use of phones can cause a distraction is by watching students walk and run into other people or walls because they are so focused on their phone that their other senses become impaired. Just yesterday I nearly got hit by a car while talking on the phone and crossing the road simultaneously, and in a more extreme case, just a year ago, a member of my church and a close family friend was in a terrible car accident due to the fact that the person driving the car collided with a tree because they were distracted trying to send a text on their phone while also
The subjects in the study were divided into groups and were asked to converse for a few minutes with half of them having their phones present in the room and the other half did not have their phones in the room. Subjects were then tested on trust, affinity, and empathy and the results showed that the subjects with their phones in the room showed a lower development, this was especially strong when the subjects were discussing personally meaningful topics. My ability to properly interpret the results of the study is limited due to the lack of some information about the study like what kind of subjects was studied during the research. One piece of information that would have been helpful to know was what method the researchers used to test the subjects on their empathy, affinity, and