How Silent Phones Disconnect Us

"What phones do to in-person conversation is a problem.  Studies show that the mere presence of a phone on the table (even if turned off) changes what people talk about.  If we think we might be interrupted, we keep conversations light, on topics of little controversy or consequence." *

So what happens when students have their phones sitting out when class is going on?

One could surmise that a similar dynamic occurs as does in the conversations the researchers above studied.  The presence of a cell phone on the desk anticipates an interruption.  The phone owner's attention is split between what is going on in class and what might be going to happen on the phone. This is the phenomenon of "continous partial attention," the practice of which uses up most of our focal energy in switching from object (phone) to object (classroom).

But what about the people around, who don't have their phones out?  They, too, we've discovered, are practicing continous partial attention.  And what's more, there seems to be a decrease in the connection everyone around feels to the class and to each other:

          "Conversations with phones on the landscape block empathetic connection.  If
           two peple are speaking and there is a phone an a nearby desk, each feels less
           connected than when there is no phone present."*

What does that mean for the learning that takes place in our classrooms when cell phones are in view?

The implication of the research is that students are less focused on what is going on (even if they are not actually on their phones), and that students feel less connection with each other and the instructor. My experience in the classroom is that this is indeed the case.  There is something powerful about even the potential of a desireable interruption.  Our "always on, always with us" technology makes this temptation even more ubiquitous.  "We are not as strong as technology's pull," a student told Turkle.  "Phones exert a seductive undertow," she concludes.*

It's really not Draconian to ask student to turn OFF their phones AND put them out of sight.  In preparation for this blog, I asked a number of students about this practice.  Overwhelming their response sounded like this:  "If you tell us to put our phones away 'just because you said so' or 'this is my rule,' we kind of resent it.  But if you explain to us that phones, even when we can see them, could cause us to miss out on something, we get it.  That's cool."

Students are not unaware of the cell's seductive allure.  And most of them really want to be "fully present."  They appreciate our intervention.

Turkle concludes, "Even a silent phone disconnects us."* (emphasis in original)


* Sherry Turkle, in Reclaiming Conversation, p. 21, 31.