Mobile phone & internet use linked to poor attention span

Heavy internet and mobile phone users are the most likely to lose concentration and forget important information – even when they?re not using the technology, a new study, published in the US journal Computers In Human Behaviour, suggests.

It is not all down to the Internet and social media, as you would initially think, as the same effect was observed even in those whose phones were not connected to the Internet.

The study found that people who use mobile phones and the Internet most heavily are more likely to:

?      Make mistakes

?      Be forgetful

?      Have worse spatial awareness.

Dr Lee Hadlington of De Montford University Leicester asked 210 people aged 18-65 to rate their behaviour in areas linked to perception, memory and motor function. 

He found that the more often a person used the internet or a mobile phone, they were far more likely to experience ?cognitive failures?. 

These ?failures? included:

?      Not turning up to appointments

?      Having trouble paying attention while in conversation

?      Forgetting why they went from one part of the house to another

Further studies, this time by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario have claimed that smartphones are making us less able to think for ourselves.

A study of 660 people has shown that people who have strong cognitive skills spend less time on their devices. Those who think in an analytical way also pick up their phone less frequently because they remember things or are able to work problems out for themselves.

The findings concluded a clear link between less time spent on the phone, stronger cognitive skills and a greater willingness to think in an analytical way. 

Read the full article at: http://goo.gl/bBjOJw