Smartphone alerts can make you inattentive, hyperactive

Are you always checking your emails alerts on phone and answering social media notifications immediately, while itching to click that news alert you just got compulsively? Then you may be experiencing some symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says a study by the University of Virginia. The study was presented at the Human-Computer Interaction conference of the Association for Computing Machinery in San Jose, California.

The two week experimental study was done on 221 students at the University of British Columbia. The students were asked to keep all their notifications on and their phone by their side for one week. The second week, they were asked to keep alerts off and the phones away from them. They filled out questionnaires which assessed their hyperactivity and attentiveness. It was found that they were highly inattentive and hyperactive when the alerts were turned on.

The research showed that though none of the participants have been diagnosed with ADHD, they may experience the symptoms such as distraction, difficulty focusing, getting bored easily while trying to focus, fidgeting and restlessness. For full study, click here.