As if we needed any more news about how distracting cell phones are, researchers have found that your phone can distract you even when you're not using it. Two psychologists from the University of Maine conducted two basic statistics experiments with two different classes. In one, the students were asked to keep their phones on the desk in front of them and in the other they were asked to put them away, completely out of sight. The results showed that the students who couldn't see their phones did better on average and especially better on the more challenging tasks, and the group with their phones out got an average of five fewer questions correct than the other group.
To be fair, cell phones aren't 100 percent pure evil. They help us keep in touch with relatives and friends far away, have functions to help us stay organized and actually keep us on task, and are the No. 1 reason anyone can ever get anywhere because the cell phone GPS is the best thing to happen to the world since sliced bread and birth control. The problem is all the arbitrary and unimportant stimuli that comes with them and also the phenomena of constantly waiting for some sort of notification from any application or messaging system. So it's pretty obvious — put your phone away while you work and try to fight the urge to check up on those Instagram likes.
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