Study: “silent mode” of the phone leads to devastating psychological effects

A study has warned that activating a smartphone’s “silent mode” as a way to help combat smartphone addiction may be counterproductive.
And the authors of the study from Pennsylvania, USA, discovered that muting notifications can be “psychologically painful” and makes smartphone users check their phones more, not less, especially for people who suffer from “afraid of missing out” and believe that their friends enjoy more in their absence.
The study published in the journal “Computers in Human Behavior” reached its results after it conducted a survey of more than 100 people about its use.
The researchers collected behavioral data from 138 US iPhone users of both sexes, with an average age of 36, and gave them the options to unmute their phones with vibration (normal mode), unmute without vibration (sound mode only), and mute their phones with vibration (normal mode). Vibrate (vibrate mode only), and finally mute without vibration (silent mode).
Most of the participants chose the vibrating mode only, 42 percent, followed by 36.2 percent who used the normal mode, while 13 percent used the audio mode only, and 8.7 percent used the silent mode.
The researchers discovered that those who completely muted notifications (no vibration or sound signals), had the highest social media use, and checked or used their phones more frequently.
The study team concluded that silencing notifications for people with a “fear of missing out” and a “need to belong” appears psychologically more “sad” to them.
The results of the new study contradict the results of another study published last month, which confirmed that disabling notifications is the best tactic to stop using the phone.