According to a new study published in the journal Computers In Human
Behavior, smartphone users initiate 89% of the interactions, with only
11% initiated by a notification. “This is at odds with previous academic
literature and news reports which commonly claim that smartphone
notifications are ruining your life, ruining productivity, and so on,”
reports PsychNewsDaily. From the report: “The perceived disruptiveness of
smartphones is not mainly driven by external notifications,” the study’s
authors write, “but by an urge of the user to interact with their phone
that seems to occur in an almost automatic manner, just as a smoker would
light a cigarette.” […] The researchers explain that many users felt
compelled to check their phones even when they had switched off
notifications. “Seeing this has made me realize that I don’t even
remember picking it up,” one of the subjects said in a subsequent
interview with the study’s authors. The study also found that the average
duration of a smartphone interaction was 64 seconds. About 50% of the
interactions were 23 seconds or less. The most common activity users
engaged in when using their phones was checking WhatsApp, which accounted
for 22% of interactions. […] The second most common interaction, at 17%
of the total, was a “lock screen check,” which means briefly unlocking
the phone to check for new notifications. In third place was interacting
with Instagram (16%). Facebook and Facebook messenger together accounted
for 13% of the interactions, e-mail for 6%, web browsing 4%, music 3%,
Snapchat 2%, and photos 2%. Phone calls — these devices are phones,
after all — only comprised about 1% of the interactions. The
participants generally considered e-mail notifications the most
important. Likewise, they largely considered group chats a “source of
distress,” and found most group-chat messages unimportant. Smartphone
interactions were longer when users were alone versus with others, and
were also longer at home versus at work. Likewise, these interactions
were shorter when participants received notifications, compared to when
they “self-disrupt.” This indicates that smartphone use is more
purposeful when users receive notifications, and more “distraction-seeking” when they check their phones themselves. The
researchers also found that the scrolling features on apps like Instagram
and Facebook led to the longest interactions. …
