Everywhere one looks today, heads are down and thumbs are frantically lunging across bright, tiny screens. When it comes to smartphones, students can’t seem to help calling, texting, or checking at least once every thirty seconds.This common obsession with technology has dramatically increased from previous years. Unfortunately, updating so often repeatedly makes people lose sight of the activities surrounding them.

A recent study in the journal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing found that “smartphone users have developed what they call ‘checking habits’ — repetitive checks of e-mail and other applications such as Facebook. The checks typically lasted less than 30 seconds and were often done within 10 minutes of each other.” The journal goes on to say that smartphone users are not necessarily compelled to check often by a need to be updated, but because it’s an ingrained habit to reach for technology.

Loren Frank, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, explains. “Each time you get an e-mail, it’s a small jolt, a positive feedback that you’re an important person,”

,he says. “It’s a little bit of an addiction in that way.” Once the brain becomes accustomed to this positive feedback, reaching out for the phone becomes an automatic action people don’t even think about consciously.

But what are the costs people pay for receiving this amount of confirmation? Dr. Adam Gazzaley, another neurologist at UCSF, believes that one of the costs is distraction from the task at hand, making it more difficult to focus or pick up where one left off. Looking at the overwhelming number of students -88% from a survey taken in Cannon Falls High School- that check their phone daily in class, imagine the distraction that is placed upon those students. How much more could be accomplished if the rules keeping phones out of the classroom were stricter?

“People don’t like thinking hard,” says Clifford Nass, a professor of communication and computer science at Stanford University. Constantly consulting ones smartphone, he says, “is an attempt to not have to think hard, but feel like you’re doing something.” Nass makes a very valid point. When times get awkward or uncomfortable, people commonly reach for their phone because it makes them feel safer and distracts them from the situation. But this imaginary security net may not be helping out. Instead, this need may be causing social issues in general.

Technology has given people great opportunities to expand their social interactions. Phones and social media as a whole definitely impact the way people are bound together across the globe. If devices are used too frequently, however, they can greatly impact ones mind set. This mindset can make one believe that how often they check their phone is acceptable due to the overwhelming amount of tasks they are accomplishing. The studies suggest some answers.  The best solution to the cold sweats one may receive after not checking ones phone for five minutes is setting aside a part of the day or a place that is a “phone free zone.” They also suggest that one should make sure that loved ones are not coming in second to the exciting world of social interactions, and most importantly, think about ones usage consciously and pay attention to the effects taking place due to modern technology.