MUMBAI: In the absence of mobile phone users can get into actual psychological harm, according to science.
You’d be forgiven for thinking it best to leave your iPhone on your desk while attending an important meeting, or keep it stowed away in your bag while on a dinner date, but researchers from the University of Missouri may just have proven you wrong.
Their recent study found that being separated from your mobile phone can actually lead to ‘physiological anxiety’ and ‘poor cognitive performance’.
Researchers recruited 40 iPhone users and asked them to solve two puzzles. In the first instance, participants were asked to complete the puzzle with their phones safely by their side.
Then and this is where it gets interesting they were asked to complete another puzzle with their phones OUT OF REACH!
And if that wasn’t enough to get their hearts pounding against their rib-cages, the pesky researchers rang the phones, not permitting participants to retrieve their device to answer.
They were made to sit there, doing a stupid puzzle, while their phones rang off the hook.
Not only did they struggle to complete the puzzle while their phones were away, they also appeared anxious and displayed increases in heart rate and blood pressure.
Coming from someone who sleeps with their phone under their pillow, this is perfectly understandable… If not slightly worrying.
The study found that, ultimately, being separated from your phone causes a ‘lessening of the self’, making you lose focus.
