With the constant bombardment of notifications from our phones many of us feel the need to distance ourselves from these distracting alerts. So instinctively it makes sense to turn them off so we check our phones less.
However, a recent study by Liao and Sundar (2022) presented research that may call into question this practice.
The authors used an app to track 138 iPhone users for four days.
The app tracked:
- Whether notifications were turned on or off
- The number of notifications received/day
- Total time spent on phone
- How often participants checked their phones.
The results indicated that the participants were more likely to check their phones on silent mode than when their phones had audio or vibrate notifications turned on. Also, participants that rated higher on Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and Need to Belong (NtB) checked their phone more often when their phones were left on silent.
Are these results surprising to you at all? Feel free to comment below and share your thoughts!
