I was intentionally late to the “smartphone party”. While everybody around me had one, I used a good old “dumb phone” 😉 that allowed me to make calls and send SMS messages, and that was about it.

In 2022, I finally gave in and got myself one of these devices. Bye-bye, resistance!

I sometimes miss the good old times without a smartphone, when I didn’t have the urge to check for updates, and when real interactions with others were easier because they weren’t glued to their phones.

A recent experiment recreated a scenario like this: Researchers tested the effects of blocking internet access on people’s smartphones, and the results were pretty fascinating, so let’s see…

• What the researchers did

• What changed after 2 weeks

• Why it worked

• What we can learn from this study

What the researchers did

Most studies about smartphones and mental health or cognitive performance are associative, meaning they aim to establish a relationship between a person's smartphone use and their cognitive test performance or mental health scores. These studies generate valuable data but cannot establish that smartphone use causes cognitive or mental health problems.

This recent study is different: by blocking participants’ mobile internet access and observing the consequences, it’s better suited for testing cause-and-effect relationships.

The researchers conducted this study over 4 weeks, with one measurement at the beginning, one after 2 weeks, and one at the end.

Participants were randomly divided into 2 groups:

• Group 1’s mobile internet was blocked in weeks 1 & 2, while Group 2 had normal access during that time (serving as a control group)

• In weeks 3 & 4, Group 2’s mobile internet was blocked, and Group 1 regained access.

Participants could still call and text, and they could use the internet on other devices (e.g., computers). They just didn’t have internet access on their phones.

One detail: the restriction of mobile internet was through an app called ‘Freedom’. Participants had to install and use it themselves, and some complied with this instruction better than others.

Screen time stats showed the following:

• Group 1 went from an average of 314 minutes/day on their phones to 161 minutes/day after 2 weeks

• Group 2 showed a similar pattern after weeks 3 & 4.

What changed after 2 weeks without mobile internet?

Apart from the obvious change in screen time, here’s what else the researchers found:

1. Subjective well-being improved

   Subjective well-being (a combination of participants’ reported life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) increased after 2 weeks without mobile internet. In other words, people felt better than before.

2. Mental health improved

   The researchers measured depression, anxiety, anger, personality function, and social anxiety, and found improved indicators after 2 weeks without mobile internet access.

3. Attention improved

   In a sustained attention test, where participants had to maintain close attention over a longer period of time, 2 weeks without mobile internet also proved beneficial. This was an objective attention test (not self-report).

4. Momentary mood improved

   The researchers also sent SMS messages to participants on several days, asking them to indicate their current mood on a scale from 1 to 10. Those with restricted mobile internet access, on average, reported better mood than those who had access.

Further results

In Group 2, as expected, there were no significant improvements during the first 2 weeks, because they maintained mobile internet access during that period. After weeks 3 & 4, they showed benefits comparable to those observed in Group 1 after weeks 1 & 2.

Group 1 still showed better subjective well-being, mental health, and mood at the end of the 4-week period, even though their mobile internet access was restricted only in weeks 1 & 2.

Additional analyses showed that participants who managed to maintain the mobile internet ban for at least 10 of the intended 14 days achieved better results than those who complied less with the instructions.

Why it worked

The authors reported different mechanisms that could explain the observed improvements:

• Time use: People spent more time in the “offline world” and less time using media

• Social connectedness: People connected more with others

• Self-control: People felt more control over their lives and actions

• Sleep: People were sleeping more than before

So, the observed benefits weren’t “magical” or “out of the blue”. Remember that before the intervention, participants spent over 5 hours per day on their phones on average, and the mobile internet restriction not only reduced their screen time but also helped them live better lives.

Like any study, this one has some limitations:

(1) Compliance was far from perfect, as already said before,

(2) some findings could be expectancy effects because participants expected to feel better after restricting mobile internet (but this doesn’t explain the improved attention because it was measured objectively), and

(3) participants were motivated to participate; otherwise, they wouldn’t have signed up for this study.

Still, the results are fascinating and complement previous studies. The link between smartphone use, mental health, and cognitive performance deserves attention.

What we can learn from this study

We’d all benefit from restricting our phone use.

Instead of the “digital detox” often mentioned online (and pretty unrealistic and unsustainable for most), try establishing some ground rules for your phone use that you could ideally maintain over time.

A good starting point would be: No smartphone during the first hour after waking and during the hour before bed (and, of course, no phone in bed).

If you manage to do that over several weeks, you can slowly try to push further, for example, extend your no-phone mornings until 10 or even noon. If anything important comes up, people will call or find you.

Wrapping up

Smartphones are practical devices, and I don’t know if I’d be able to return to pre-2022 Patricia without a smartphone. Probably not.

But still, we should see them as the piece of electronics they are, not as something allowed to control our lives.

That’s it for today!

And now?

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Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com.