Strategies to get people to turn off or put their smartphones on silent as a way to reduce distraction or avoid Internet addiction may backfire for some, according to researchers at Penn State University. In one study, researchers reported that people checked their phones more when the device was in silent mode. Those who scored high on the “Fear of Missing Out (FoMO)” and “Need to Belong” personality tests checked their phones more often when muted, and in some cases, used them longer. “The general, common-sense approach to overcoming addiction, or any substance overuse or dependence, is to reduce that substance,” said S. Shyam Sunda, one of the study’s authors. “The industry approach to suppressing smartphone overuse is often to find ways to cut you off. Use of your phone, reducing the number of notifications, or giving you the option to mute the sound. While these are common-sense approaches, we don’t really know if they work psychologically. This seems like a counterproductive or counterproductive example .” People with high levels of FoMO checked their phones about 50 times a day with vibrate on. In silent mode, the number of times these participants checked their phones soared to about 120 times a day. The researchers also found that people with higher levels of FoMO spent significantly more time using their phone if the phone was in silent mode. People with a high need for attribution did not pick up their phone more when it was in silent mode, but they did stay on their phone longer if their phone was in silent or vibrate-only mode. “Imagine in class, the teacher tells the students to turn off their phones, and we think everyone is paying attention to the teacher right now,” Sunda said. “But the study found the opposite, because they were so obsessed with everything they missed, so it might have been more distracting.”
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