The psychology behind checking your phone

You are waiting for a lift and, almost without thinking, your hand reaches for your phone. You are sitting in a car and there is a two-minute pause before you need to get out, so you unlock the screen. You are standing in a queue, waiting for your coffee or food, and suddenly you are scrolling through messages or social media. Often, there is nothing particularly important waiting for you. You may have checked your phone only a few minutes earlier, yet the moment there is nothing else demanding your attention, the urge to look at the screen returns.Most of us would describe this as boredom. But psychology suggests that the story may be more complicated. The urge to reach for a phone during a quiet moment can sometimes be connected to our discomfort with unstructured time, mind-wandering, anxiety, uncertainty or simply the desire for immediate stimulation. In some situations, the phone may provide an easy way of interrupting thoughts before we have even become aware of what we are thinking about. This does not mean that every instance of checking a phone is an attempt to escape one's thoughts. Smartphone use is often perfectly purposeful and harmless. However, research into boredom, mind-wandering and mobile-phone behaviour raises an interesting question: what happens inside our minds when there is suddenly nothing to occupy them?One of the most widely discussed experiments on this subject was published in the journal Science in 2014 under the title“Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind.” Researchers conducted 11 experiments in which participants were asked to spend periods of time alone with their thoughts, without the usual external entertainment or distractions. The researchers found that many participants found the experience surprisingly difficult and did not enjoy it as much as having something external to occupy their attention. In one particularly memorable experiment, participants were given the option of administering mild electric shocks to themselves while sitting alone with their thoughts, and some chose to do so rather than remain without external stimulation. The study became famous because it suggested that simply being alone with one's thoughts can be challenging for human beings. However, it is important not to exaggerate its conclusions. A later commentary questioned whether the original research had overstated the unpleasantness of thinking, pointing out that participants' experiences were not uniformly negative. The more useful conclusion is therefore not that people hate their thoughts, but that unstructured mental space can sometimes be uncomfortable or difficult to sustain.

There is a scientific reason behind the constant urge to check one's phone (Canva)

The modern smartphone changes the equation because it provides almost instant access to stimulation whenever that discomfort appears. There is no need to wait for a television programme, open a book or find another person to talk to. A phone can immediately provide a message, photograph, video, headline, search result or social-media update. That makes it remarkably efficient at filling tiny gaps in our day. The very moments that once allowed the mind to wander can now be occupied almost automatically.Research has begun examining what happens when people resist that impulse. A study titled “Psychological and physiological effects of applying self-control to the mobile phone,” published in PLOS One and indexed in PubMed, compared participants who used their phones with participants who sat without their phones and participants who had their phones available but resisted using them. The researchers found differences in concentration and mind-wandering across the conditions, although the results did not support the simple idea that being without a phone automatically makes people more bored or unhappy. This is an important distinction because it suggests that the psychological effect of putting down the phone may have more to do with attention and mental activity than with a straightforward increase in boredom.That mental activity is important because a quiet moment is rarely an empty moment for the brain. When there is no immediate task competing for attention, the mind naturally wanders. You may suddenly remember something someone said to you yesterday, think about a conversation that did not go the way you wanted, begin planning tomorrow, replay an old memory or start worrying about something that needs to be done. You might also daydream, make a creative connection or simply notice how you are feeling. Mind-wandering is a normal feature of everyday cognition, and research suggests that people spend a substantial proportion of their waking lives in this state.A systematic review and meta-analysis titled“Ecological momentary assessment of mind-wandering: meta-analysis and systematic review,” which is indexed in PubMed, examined research measuring mind-wandering in people's everyday lives. The review found that mind-wandering is common, although estimates vary considerably depending on how it is measured and the circumstances in which it occurs. This matters for smartphone behaviour because the device can become an extremely convenient interruption whenever the mind begins to wander. Instead of allowing a thought to develop, we can immediately shift our attention towards something external.Boredom, however, remains an important part of the explanation. Researchers have found associations between boredom proneness and problematic mobile-phone use. A study titled “Are bored minds more likely to be addicted? The relationship between boredom proneness and problematic mobile phone use,” published in Addictive Behaviors and indexed in PubMed, examined 1,099 college students and found that boredom proneness was associated with problematic mobile-phone use. The study also examined depression and attentional control as factors involved in the relationship. The findings suggest that boredom can contribute to excessive phone use, but they also show why it is too simplistic to say that people simply pick up their phones because they have nothing to do.

Checking phone-in-between work (Canva)

Sometimes boredom itself may be an uncomfortable psychological state. When there is nothing happening externally, a person may become more aware of internal thoughts and feelings. Someone who is restless may seek stimulation. Someone who feels lonely may look for social interaction online. Someone who is worried may seek information. Someone who is simply accustomed to constant stimulation may find an unstimulated environment strangely difficult. The same physical behaviour - unlocking a phone - can therefore have very different psychological reasons behind it.Loneliness and self-control have also been investigated in relation to problematic phone use. Research titled “Loneliness and Mobile Phone Addiction Among Chinese College Students: The Mediating Roles of Boredom Proneness and Self-Control,” indexed in PubMed, examined more than 1,000 college students. The researchers found relationships between loneliness, boredom proneness and problematic mobile-phone use, with boredom and self-control playing important roles in the relationship. Again, this does not mean that checking a phone is evidence of loneliness or addiction. It suggests instead that our emotional state can influence the way we use a device that is almost always available.There is another reason people may repeatedly check their phones: uncertainty. Sometimes the motivation is not entertainment but reassurance. Did someone reply to the message? Has an email arrived? Did something happen while I was away? Is there news I should know about? Research into intolerance of uncertainty and increasing connectivity has examined how mobile technology can provide immediate access to information and reassurance. A study titled “Increasing intolerance of uncertainty over time: the potential influence of increasing connectivity,” indexed in PubMed, discussed how constant connectivity can interact with uncertainty and reassurance-seeking behaviour. In some circumstances, checking can temporarily reduce uncertainty, but repeated reassurance-seeking can also become part of a cycle that keeps the underlying anxiety alive.Habit is another piece of the puzzle. We do not always consciously decide to check our phones. The behaviour can become associated with particular situations: sitting down, waiting, waking up, going to bed or experiencing a pause in conversation. Over time, the cue itself may trigger the behaviour. The interesting part is that the person may not even know why they are reaching for the phone. The action can occur before conscious reasoning catches up.Research on craving, self-control and problematic mobile-phone use has also explored this process. A PubMed-indexed study titled “Weak and interfered self-control fails to block problematic mobile phone use: The role of craving and desire thinking” examined adolescents and found relationships between self-control, craving and problematic phone use. Such findings help explain why knowing that you have no real reason to check your phone does not necessarily eliminate the urge to do so.But there is an important reason not to turn this into another story about smartphones being inherently harmful. Smartphone use can also be enjoyable, socially meaningful and useful. A recent study titled “Investigating the Effects of Smartphone Use During Short Breaks on Cognitive Performance and Affective States,” indexed in PubMed, found that participants reported more positive mood after smartphone breaks than after sitting quietly, while the researchers did not find significant differences in subsequent cognitive performance or mind-wandering. In other words, using your phone during a break is not automatically psychologically damaging.The more interesting question, therefore, is not whether phones are good or bad. It is whether we have become so accustomed to filling every pause that we rarely notice what happens when we do not. The next time you reach for your phone while waiting for an elevator, sitting in traffic or standing in a queue, it may be worth delaying the impulse for a few seconds. Instead of immediately asking what is happening on the screen, ask yourself what was happening inside your mind immediately before you reached for it.Perhaps you were simply bored. Perhaps you were curious. Perhaps you were waiting for a message. Perhaps you were restless or anxious. Perhaps an uncomfortable thought had just surfaced. Or perhaps there was no psychological drama at all and you had simply developed a habit of filling every empty second.The distinction is important because a quiet moment is not necessarily an empty moment. Sometimes it is simply a moment in which the external world has stopped demanding your attention and your internal world gets a chance to become audible. The phone may not always be an escape from that inner world, but it is an extraordinarily efficient way of avoiding the silence long enough to find out what your mind was about to say.