Do you tend to put off finalizing that file, your revisions for that exam, or even your tax return? If you recognize yourself in through one of these situations, it is likely that you are one of these 85% of French people affected by this phenomenon.
While Procrastination Day has just taken place on March 25, a very serious study published a few days later brings up the subject with a particularly …
The smartphone: the biggest enemy of concentration?
With 95% of the French population over 15 years old having declared Being in possession of a mobile phone according to the latest figures from INSEE, it is difficult to imagine that these devices do not have an impact on our daily lives.
A study dated March 28, 2025, published by Frontiers in Computer Science, wanted to get to the bottom of this by looking at a very thorny subject... Indeed, smartphones are often accused of being the primary culprits of a general lack of concentration, and of procrastination that increases every year, but is this really justified?
As part of this study, 22 people were invited to work for 2 days in a soundproof room. Some participants came with their phone and a laptop to work, and had access to their smartphone, while others were separated from it at 1.5m distance.
Result? The participants' concentration did not improve, however as their attention was diverted elsewhere to entertainment. The study participants notably returned their attention to their laptop, proving that the smartphone was not the cause of an increase in procrastination...
Behaviors not adapted to uses
In his study, doctor and researcher at the London School of Economics Maxi Heitmayer wanted to demonstrate that smartphones were not blame to explain the increase in procrastination.
According to him, "the smartphone itself is not the problem", but rather what we do with it that can reinforce bad habits and behaviors that promote procrastination.
However, the doctor shows that application designers have perfectly understood this phenomenon and have encouraged uses that are detrimental to productivity. Among the main accused, social networks like TikTok are put in the foreground, regularly accused as in this study by Computers in Human Behavior.
While certain features, such as "Screen Time" on iPhone, already allow the measurement of time spent on certain applications, this is not yet sufficient to stem the phenomenon...
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