Psychology of Media & Technology

We are social animals and phones are portals to our social world.  The "need to know tendency" is innate in us all, but more pronounced in teens, who also are in a formative cognitive stage, having not fully developed the ability to assess longer-term risk.  This isn't a personal failing, it's a biological feature of physical development. This make smartphones deeply compelling in the most fundamental sense.  The only way to counteract this tendency is through mindful choice.  In other words, making a conscious decision and sticking with it.

Couple the tendency to go social with our mistaken belief in  the concept of "multi-tasking."  Sadly, in spite of our best efforts, we are incapable of focusing on more than one thing at a time. Some people are very, very good at task-switching, but what we don't pay attention to we might not see, not even with our peripheral vision.  Cognitive scientists have repeatedly shown that we suffer from "inattention blindness"--missing all kinds of important things around us--when we concentrate on one thing.  Another way of thinking about this is in terms of presence.  Where are you psychologically present when you're on the  phone or texting?  Your body may still be behind the while, but your mind is with your friends, family or boss, not on the highway.