Are smartphones making us STUPID? “Googling” information is making us mentally lazy, study claims.

Published: 15:58 p.m., 6 March 2015

Source: Dan Bates for mailonline.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2982899/Are-smartphones-making-STUPID-Googling-information-making-mentally-lazy-study-claims.html

Science field: Study investigation

Summary:

Study found that people who have strong cognitive skills spend less time on their devices than those with less brain power. Those who think analytically also use their phone less frequently because they remember things or are able to work problems out for themselves.

Glossary:

-          - Cognitive: the mental act of learning; understanding; perception.

-          - Skill: the knowledge or ability to do something well.

-          - Lazy: unwilling to work or perform effort, activity, or exertion; indolent.

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Review:

Smartphones are making us less able to think for ourselves.

A study has shown that people who have strong cognitive skills spend less time on their devices than those with less brain power. 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.

Smartphones are making people lazier than ever as we saw them as an ‘extension of our mind’. Googling information we don’t know is replacing natural curiosity - a trend that will only get worse in the future. The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and involved studying 660 people.

The team looked at various measures of brain power and cognitive skills ranging from intuitive to analytical, along with verbal and numeracy skills. They also asked all of those taking part to write down their smartphone habits. The findings showed a clear link between less time spent on the phone and stronger cognitive skills and greater willingness to think in an analytical way. Heavy smartphone users may look up information that they actually know but are unwilling to make the effort to actually think about it. The research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence. Findings could have consequences as people get older. Humans are eager to avoid expending effort when problem-solving and it seems likely that people will increasingly use their smartphones as an extended mind. Our reliance on smartphones and other devices will likely only continue to rise. It’s important to understand how smartphones affect and relate to human psychology before these technologies are so fully ingrained that it’s hard to recall what life was like without them.

But we may already be at that point. 

Written by Rebeca Mees