Setting Your Mobile to Silent Mode Can Backfire Leading to More Use

Excessive smartphone use is clearly a 21^st-century problem, with countless people spending their days endlessly scrolling from one feed or social media app to another. Many argue that there is an easy solution: simply turn off the phone or put it on silent mode, but this is not according to a group of researchers in University Park, Pennsylvania who reported that this solution may backfire!

Silent Mode Might Lead to Continuous Phone Checking

To check if putting the phone on silent might help in reducing the time people spend on their phones, the study authors conducted a study that included a number of people who were asked to set their phones to silent mode and then to vibrate mode, and then count the number of times they checked their phones.

When the phone's sound and vibration were on, the groups checked their devices an average of 52.9 times per day. When their phones were on silent, that rate nearly doubled to 98.2 times a day.

Notably, participants who scored high on the "fear of missing out" and "need to belong" tests checked their phones more often after they were put on silent mode. In some cases, these individuals stayed on their phones longer as well which leads us to the fact that even if the approach used is logically effective, it may not be psychologically so, which leads us to be counterproductive.

Overall, the research team says their work indicates that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution to overcome the growing societal problem of smartphone distraction and that the first step toward promoting healthy tech habits for everyone is understanding that different people interact with different apps, notifications, and tech features in a different way.

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