{ "article": { "format_version": 5, "presentation": "complete-card", "overview": "Attention is how you select what matters and stay with it while other things compete for notice. Phones can interrupt a task, invite an unplanned detour, or take time from sleep and conversation; those are different problems. Start with one situation you want to improve, protect necessary contact, and change one optional interruption. Judge the result by the task, your experience and anything important you missed—not screen minutes alone.", "sections": [ { "id": "understanding-attention", "role": "explanation", "title": "What attention does during a task", "intro": "You can understand a distraction more clearly by naming what was happening before the phone entered the picture.", "items": [ { "label": "Give attention a clear job", "text": "Reading a difficult paragraph asks you to select its meaning over nearby conversation and keep returning to that meaning as you read. Sustained attention means maintaining that engagement over time. Working memory is the information you hold and use while doing something, such as remembering the beginning of a sentence while interpreting its end. Amishi Jha's attention research and Earl Miller's cognitive neuroscience treat these as related functions, rather than one attention-span score. A missed detail, a forgotten intention and an unfinished task may need different supports. Name the task first: remembering instructions is a more useful target than becoming a permanently focused person.", "source_ids": [ "jha-lab", "jha-profile", "miller-working-memory" ] }, { "label": "Distinguish a switch, an interruption and a detour", "text": "An intentional switch is a chosen move to a different task. An interruption stops the current task and creates a question about returning to it. Dual-tasking means attempting overlapping activities, while media multitasking describes patterns of using more than one medium. Scrolling for an hour might involve sustained attention to a feed rather than repeated task switches; the concern may be what that hour displaced. The task-switching review by Andrea Kiesel and colleagues and Douglas Parry's media-multitasking review study different questions. For example, silencing a ping addresses an external cue; it does not by itself settle what you do when a hard paragraph makes you want a break.", "source_ids": [ "kiesel-switching", "parry-multitasking", "kushlev-opportunity" ] }, { "label": "Ask what phone use adds and what it replaces", "text": "A useful phone activity can still compete with another worthwhile activity. Kostadin Kushlev's 2026 opportunity-cost framework separates displacement, substitution and interference: taking time that could go elsewhere, replacing an activity with a digital version, and disrupting an activity while it happens. These are explanatory ideas, not a diagnostic test or a proven formula for a good life. They make the question concrete: did the video call add contact you otherwise lacked, did a feed replace intended sleep, or did messages keep interrupting dinner? The answer depends on the available alternative, not merely whether a screen was involved.", "source_ids": [ "kushlev-opportunity" ] } ] }, { "id": "everyday-focus", "role": "application", "title": "Choose the situation you want to improve", "items": [ { "label": "Give an unplanned scroll a clear stopping point", "text": "You open the phone to reply, then discover that you are reading a feed. Separate the useful reply from the unplanned continuation. Douglas Parry's measurement research shows why a remembered daily total is a shaky description of what occurred; the log can help reconstruct the sequence. Add your original intention and what happened afterward. For a small practical comparison, finish the reply, close that app and return to the activity you named beforehand. That sequence is an editorial example, not a tested treatment. It gives you a specific detour to examine without calling necessary or enjoyable phone use a disorder.\n\nSuppose a person opens a message to confirm a pickup time, follows a feed notification and returns to a half-written form much later. The interruption to examine is the optional feed detour, not the necessary pickup message. They try removing that notification while leaving the contact route available, and note where to resume the form before responding.\n\nOn the next occasion, phone minutes may remain similar because the pickup arrangements genuinely take longer. Yet the person finishes the form without the unrelated detour. Conversely, fewer phone minutes would be a poor result if an essential message was missed. This invented comparison gives the change two checks: did the intended task become easier to complete, and did important communication still work? A usage total alone cannot answer either question or diagnose an attention disorder.", "source_ids": [ "parry-logs", "eyal-profile" ] }, { "label": "Agree on response expectations before protecting work", "text": "Writing a report and answering an urgent service request are both legitimate work, but they place different demands on attention. Gloria Mark's field research describes fragmented information work, and the UK's Health and Safety Executive treats workload and work patterns as organizational responsibilities. If your role allows it, agree with colleagues which channel means urgent, what can wait, and when you will check it. If your job is monitoring, care, operations or collaboration, planned switching may be essential. A phone setting cannot repair understaffing, unclear priorities or an impossible response standard; those need a conversation about how the work is organized.", "source_ids": [ "mark-fragmentation", "hse-demands" ] }, { "label": "Make the evening transition serve your sleep", "text": "If phone use keeps pushing bedtime later, target that transition rather than your whole day's screen total. He and colleagues randomized 38 participants, selected for poor sleep and bedtime phone use, to a 30-minute pre-bed restriction or usual behavior for four weeks. Several sleep and arousal outcomes improved, but this small pilot does not prove a universal bedroom rule or isolate light from content, time displacement and expectation. Choose a workable stopping point for several nights and note bedtime and sleep. Preserve alarms, health tools, accessibility, caregiving and emergency contact; a change to one app can be more practical than removing the device.", "source_ids": [ "he-bedtime", "apple-focus" ] }, { "label": "Make shared phone time an agreement", "text": "At dinner, one person may be waiting for a care-related call while another is hoping for uninterrupted conversation. In Dwyer, Kushlev and Dunn's restaurant experiment, the phone-available group reported more distraction and less enjoyment on average; that finding concerns an experience in a setting, not the meaning of every visible phone. Ask what access each person needs and agree on a phone-light interval with a clear end. Name a necessary check instead of guessing the other person's motive. Accessibility, work, caregiving, culture and communication needs matter. Judge the agreement by whether the people feel included and the conversation improves.", "source_ids": [ "dwyer-meals", "radesky-profile" ] } ] }, { "id": "research-findings", "role": "findings", "title": "What studies found about interruptions and phone access", "intro": "A result is most useful when you know the task, the people and the outcome that were actually studied.", "items": [ { "label": "Allow for the demands of switching tasks", "text": "In laboratory task-switching studies, people commonly respond more slowly or less accurately just after changing task rules than when repeating them. Kiesel and colleagues' review examines both preparation for the new task and interference from the old one. A switch cost is that measured performance difference; it is not a fixed number of minutes lost from a workday. Preparation, practice, timing and the tasks themselves matter. The practical implication is to give demanding work a suitable interval and make transitions deliberate when possible. It does not require ignoring useful interruptions or treating every planned change of activity as harmful.", "source_ids": [ "kiesel-switching", "kiesel-full" ] }, { "label": "Shape alerts even when you leave the phone untouched", "text": "A phone can compete for attention without being picked up. Stothart, Mitchum and Yehnert found that incoming call or text notifications disrupted undergraduates' performance on an attention-demanding laboratory task even without direct phone interaction. This supports taking optional alerts seriously, rather than assuming that refusing to answer removes their effect. The study does not establish equal harm from every notification in everyday life. A quiet device, an allowed-contact list or a scheduled check are different ways to protect a suitable task while keeping important access. Choose according to what the alert means and the cost of missing it.", "source_ids": [ "stothart-notifications", "apple-focus" ] }, { "label": "Balance notification batching with the need to stay informed", "text": "Batching means receiving notifications at scheduled intervals instead of whenever they arrive. Fitz, Kushlev and colleagues compared usual delivery, hourly batches, three daily batches and no notifications in a randomized field experiment with 237 completing participants in India. After a baseline week, the intervention lasted two weeks. Three daily batches improved several self-reported outcomes, including concentration and perceived productivity, and reduced phone unlocks. They also increased fear of missing important notifications. The no-notification group reported more anxiety and fear of missing out; hourly batching showed few benefits. People could still open apps to check messages. This is evidence for a tradeoff, not proof of improved objective work output or a required three-check schedule.", "source_ids": [ "fitz-batching" ] }, { "label": "Use device logs to improve recall, then add context", "text": "Parry and colleagues combined 106 effect sizes comparing logged digital-media use with self-reported use. Remembered estimates correlated only moderately with logs and rarely matched the amount accurately; problematic-use questionnaires corresponded even less closely. A log is therefore useful for checking which app or time window you want to understand. It still does not explain why you used the phone or what that use did for you. Navigation, work, medical access, learning and unwanted scrolling can produce similar totals. Pair duration with purpose, content, choice and outcomes; neither a log nor a questionnaire alone tells you that someone has a disorder.", "source_ids": [ "parry-logs", "kuss-profile" ] }, { "label": "Read the internet-blocking trial as a specific intervention", "text": "Castelo, Kushlev, Ward and colleagues randomized the timing of a two-week smartphone internet block in a month-long trial involving 467 U.S. and Canadian iPhone users. The block covered mobile data and Wi-Fi; calls, texts and internet on other devices remained available. Sustained attention improved on an objective task, alongside self-reported mental health and well-being. Their intention-to-treat analyses retained participants regardless of compliance, but the primary repeated-measures analyses required complete observations. Only 119 of the 467 met the compliance threshold, and attrition and expectations limit generalization. The result supports the possibility that changing access helps. It does not establish that a single-app limit, focus mode or another-room phone produces the same benefit, or replaces clinical treatment.", "source_ids": [ "castelo-blocking" ] }, { "label": "Understand work resumption without a universal recovery timer", "text": "Mark, Gonzalez and Harris observed 24 information workers and examined related activities called working spheres. Interrupted work could have several other activities between stopping and returning; elapsed time included those activities. That is different from experimentally measuring how long the brain needs to recover after each ping. The study also found that some interruptions supplied useful work information. Its lasting lesson is to protect continuity and understand what a switch accomplishes. The popular claim that every interruption costs about 23 minutes turns a field observation into a universal cognitive rule that the study did not test.", "source_ids": [ "mark-fragmentation" ] } ] }, { "id": "where-findings-differ", "role": "cautions", "title": "Where broad phone rules outrun the evidence", "items": [ { "label": "Choose phone placement from your task and access needs", "text": "The mere-presence question asks whether an unused nearby phone reduces cognitive performance. Parry's preregistered review of 56 studies and 7,093 participants found a significant pooled effect for working memory, with null summary effects for other cognitive functions and substantial methodological uncertainty. Böttger, Poschik and Zierer's 2023 synthesis combined 22 studies and 43 effects involving phone presence or use: the overall effect was small (g = −0.14), memory was affected (g = −0.23), and the attention subgroup was not significant (g = −0.07). These standardized differences are not percentages of brainpower lost. The reviews differ in scope and analysis. Compare safe placement options if useful; they do not establish one mandatory distance for everyone.", "source_ids": [ "parry-presence", "bottger-presence" ] }, { "label": "Judge competing tasks without labeling a person's ability", "text": "Reading while composing a message can create an immediate conflict, but a person's usual media habits are a different research question. Parry and le Roux's meta-analysis of 118 assessments found a small pooled association between media multitasking and cognitive control that varied with the measure and outcome. Most included assessments involved students, and the review did not resolve causality. It cannot tell whether media habits change cognitive ability, people with certain difficulties multitask more, or other factors explain the relationship. Judge the actual arrangement by errors, recall, time and strain. A habit score does not prove a stable deficit or settle how a practiced combination will work.", "source_ids": [ "parry-multitasking" ] }, { "label": "Match a digital break to the outcome being studied", "text": "Short breaks and a two-week internet block are different interventions. King, Moon and Kushlev randomly assigned 640 college students to usual behavior or a daily 30-minute screen-free interval after waking, before bed or at a chosen time for seven days. The main comparison found no improvement in daily affect, meaning reported pleasant versus unpleasant feelings; compliance was difficult. Some analyses of actual practice found better outcomes, but those associations do not carry the same causal weight as random assignment. Eight students with no daily outcomes were excluded. Read this alongside the positive internet-blocking trial: different access changes, samples and outcomes can produce different answers, so neither establishes one universal digital-break rule.", "source_ids": [ "king-timed-breaks", "castelo-blocking" ] }, { "label": "Describe a digital break by its observable effects", "text": "A planned break can create more room for another activity; calling it a dopamine reset adds a biological claim. Berridge and Robinson's review distinguishes reward-related wanting from pleasure or liking and discusses addiction mechanisms more complex than a depleted pleasure tank. It supplies no short reset timer for ordinary scrolling. Meanwhile, the mobile-internet trial tested a substantial access change, not a validated detox dose. The useful unresolved questions concern which changes help whom, by what mechanism and at what cost. Notice urges, relief, boredom, sleep and choice in ordinary language; boredom alone does not establish withdrawal. Persistent loss of control with distress or impairment deserves assessment rather than a self-assigned addiction label.", "source_ids": [ "berridge-reward", "castelo-blocking", "kuss-profile", "lembke-profile" ] }, { "label": "Ask what a young person experiences online", "text": "Research on adolescent social media and health includes helpful connection and harmful experiences, with different patterns across people and activities. The National Academies' reviewed report did not support a population-level conclusion that social media causes changes in adolescent health. That conclusion does not mean an individual cannot be harmed. Look directly at harassment, exploitation, harmful content, social comparison and displaced sleep, while preserving useful support, identity exploration, creativity, information and community. Jenny Radesky's pediatric work adds developmental stage and family context. Discuss needs and boundaries with the young person using age-appropriate family and professional guidance. Duration alone cannot carry those meanings, and adult focus experiments cannot become youth guidance without considering age and needs.", "source_ids": [ "nasem-adolescents", "radesky-profile" ] } ] }, { "id": "work-transitions", "role": "application", "title": "Keep your place when work changes", "items": [ { "label": "Leave a brief return cue when the situation allows it", "text": "Attention residue means thoughts about the task you left keep intruding while you handle another task. Sophie Leroy and Theresa Glomb's 2018 studies tested a ready-to-resume plan: briefly recording where you were and what you would do on return. It reduced residue and improved performance on the interrupting task. The researchers did not test whether performance improved after returning to the original task. A private example is: “Checked rows 1–20; next compare row 21 with the receipt; two dates remain uncertain.” That is an adaptation, not a required form or proven shortcut. Skip the note when an urgent response matters more, and protect confidential information.", "source_ids": [ "leroy-resume" ] }, { "label": "Check a handoff note for usefulness and effort", "text": "A tool can reduce distraction while adding another demand. Van Zoonen and Scharp's field experiment followed 50 employees in a Dutch technology consultancy across four days, with 25 in each group. Ready-to-resume plans reduced attention residue and weakened its association with exhaustion, but the intervention group had higher general exhaustion. The authors proposed explanations that require further testing; the study did not show a fatigue remedy. Judge your own brief note by whether it helps and whether keeping it becomes a chore. Simplify or stop it if the burden outweighs the benefit. Findings about unplanned work intrusions do not automatically explain planned rest breaks.", "source_ids": [ "vanzoonen-intrusions" ] }, { "label": "Improve the work system as well as the phone setting", "text": "If four people need immediate replies through four channels while you are responsible for a demanding task, the conflict belongs in the work design. The Health and Safety Executive's Management Standards address demands such as workload, work patterns and the work environment. A practical discussion can name the highest-priority task, the person covering urgent contact, and the expected reply window for routine questions. Skill, tools, staffing, incentives, health and authority also affect productivity. Protected time is useful only when it fits those responsibilities; the aim is reliable work and care, not accumulating uninterrupted minutes at everyone else's expense.", "source_ids": [ "hse-demands", "newport-profile" ] } ] }, { "id": "keeping-changes-useful", "role": "application", "title": "Make a change easy to keep and revise", "items": [ { "label": "Choose a result that matches your reason for changing", "text": "Different goals need different evidence. If the problem is proofreading errors, count errors; if it is a late bedtime, note when you actually stopped and slept. If it is shared time, ask whether the interaction felt better. Do not use a laboratory attention score or a falling phone total as a substitute for those outcomes. Mark's work studies real activities, while Gazzaley's research measures particular cognitive functions. A smaller screen total can accompany worse access or simply more laptop use. Success means the chosen arrangement served the need you named.", "source_ids": [ "mark-profile", "gazzaley-profile" ] }, { "label": "Keep a light record of purpose, timing and experience", "text": "Make the record small enough to use: the task, the change, the result and an important tradeoff. A log can help locate an evening pattern that memory missed, but there is no need to turn every unlock into a judgment. Note whether use was intentional, necessary, enjoyable or a detour and whether sleep, distress or connection changed. A brief unsafe interaction can matter more than hours of useful work. Parry's measurement review supports checking recalled amount; interpretation still needs your context. Keep sensitive messages and other people's information out of the record.", "source_ids": [ "parry-logs", "nasem-adolescents" ] }, { "label": "Make the allowed-contact list work in practice", "text": "A setting is useful only if the needed contact can still reach you. Apple's Focus guidance permits selected people and apps, with options for calls and repeated calls; settings and available features vary by device and software. Check your device's current instructions, choose the channels your responsibilities require, and test them with a safe ordinary message before relying on the arrangement. Preserve medical, accessibility, caregiving, severe-weather and emergency access unless a safe alternative exists. Restoring a needed route is a sensible adjustment. A focus tool should support your life rather than silently remove a responsibility.", "source_ids": [ "apple-focus", "apple-allow" ] }, { "label": "Revisit social agreements when people's needs change", "text": "A phone-light meal that worked last month may need a different arrangement during illness, travel or a change at work. Ask whether everyone still has access and feels included, whether checks need explaining, and when the agreed interval ends. The restaurant experiment measured distraction and enjoyment, not attachment or character. Radesky's family-media perspective keeps context visible. Revisit the agreement if it excludes someone, interferes with care or leaves the interaction unchanged. A mutual norm is more informative than judging the relationship from a face-down phone or a single necessary check.", "source_ids": [ "dwyer-meals", "radesky-profile" ] }, { "label": "Keep the least disruptive change that answers your question", "text": "An allowed-contact list, one muted app, a scheduled check, a shorter work interval or more phone distance changes different things. Start with a safe option proportionate to the task and make it easy to end. If blocking an app leads to the same detour on a laptop, the useful lesson concerns the activity or cue rather than the device. Newport and Eyal offer practical frameworks for intentional work and environment design, but no framework establishes a universal focus-block length. Keep, adjust or end the experiment from the result and the responsibilities it affected.", "source_ids": [ "newport-profile", "eyal-profile", "apple-focus" ] } ] }, { "id": "professional-perspectives", "role": "perspectives", "title": "Use professional ideas for the question they answer", "items": [ { "label": "Use work and behavior frameworks as planning tools", "text": "Cal Newport's protected-work writing and Nir Eyal's behavioral-design writing make everyday choices easier to describe: reserve time for a demanding task, decide what the tool is for, notice a trigger, and prepare an alternative. Newport is a computer-science professor; Eyal is an author and consultant who previously taught at Stanford. Their public frameworks are not clinical treatments or experimentally established doses of phone-free time. Use a framework to make a plan concrete, then judge the plan by its results. Buying a book, app or workshop is not required for this experiment.", "source_ids": [ "newport-profile", "newport-public", "eyal-profile" ] }, { "label": "Include platform design in the explanation", "text": "Tristan Harris and the Center for Humane Technology draw attention to platform incentives and design features, such as infinite scrolling and attention-grabbing notifications. This is a design and policy perspective, not proof that every person is harmed or a clinical diagnosis. It gives a useful reason to look beyond willpower: a feed without a natural stopping point creates a different experience from opening a message and finishing a reply. Look for the feature that competes with your intention and choose a specific boundary around it. Responsibility also belongs to designers, organizations and communication norms.", "source_ids": [ "harris-profile", "cht-design" ] }, { "label": "Check the exact evidence behind attention-training promises", "text": "Jha studies attention and mindfulness-based training, while Gazzaley develops and evaluates technology-based cognitive interventions. Their research leaves room for useful training while requiring a precise question: which program, which people, which outcome and what comparison? Improvement on one test does not establish improved work, sleep or every attention problem. Gazzaley also has disclosed commercial and investment roles connected to technology. These fields offer questions to investigate, not a reason to buy a generic brain-training product or regard a popular practice as guaranteed treatment.", "source_ids": [ "jha-lab", "gazzaley-profile" ] } ] }, { "id": "safety-and-support", "role": "cautions", "title": "Protect safety and know when to get help", "items": [ { "label": "Stop safely before using the phone during a hazardous task", "text": "NHTSA says safe driving requires your full attention; phone conversation and texting can both divert it. David Strayer's research also examines cognitive distraction in vehicles, so hands-free access should not be treated as an all-clear. Never text, call, scroll or adjust a phone while driving, cycling in traffic, operating machinery or tools, working at heights, or doing another safety-critical task. Stop in a safe place first and follow local and workplace rules. Personal comparisons of desk-task focus do not belong in hazardous situations. Keep emergency access available through a safe arrangement rather than handling the device during the task.", "source_ids": [ "nhtsa-safety", "strayer-profile", "strayer-public" ] }, { "label": "Bring persistent or sudden attention changes to qualified care", "text": "Occasional distraction is common. NIMH distinguishes adult ADHD by symptoms that are frequent, persistent, impair daily life and occur across situations, with a developmental history considered in assessment. A screen-time total cannot establish that pattern. Persistent attention or organization trouble across settings, or a sudden change with sleep, mood, medication, substance use, illness or injury, deserves qualified assessment. Describe when it began, where it occurs and what became harder. Health, environment and responsibilities may all matter. Do not start, stop or change prescribed medication from this article; discuss treatment questions with the prescriber. Attention experiments can support understanding without replacing care.", "source_ids": [ "nimh-adhd", "nimh-help" ] }, { "label": "Get immediate help when you cannot stay safe", "text": "If you may harm yourself or cannot stay safe, get immediate help rather than waiting for a phone experiment to work. In the United States, call or text 988 for crisis support, or call 911 for a life-threatening emergency. Elsewhere, use local emergency or crisis services. NIMH also advises professional help for severe or persistent symptoms that affect functioning. This is general education, not a diagnosis or treatment plan. Named sources. Honest paraphrase of the finding. Not medical, legal, or financial advice.", "source_ids": [ "nimh-help" ] } ] }, { "id": "one-useful-test", "role": "next_steps", "title": "Try one change around one real task", "intro": "These are practical adaptations of the evidence, not a course, a required regimen or a test of your character.", "items": [ { "label": "Protect one important task and keep essential access", "text": "Choose one upcoming task and one outcome: finishing a draft, catching errors, remembering a paragraph or enjoying a conversation. Write what contact must remain available. Change one optional interruption for that task through an allowed-contact list, a muted channel, a scheduled check or safe phone distance. At the end, note the result, strain and anything important you missed. Keep, adjust or end the change. This small comparison cannot prove a general cause, but it can show whether the arrangement is worth using again. For community discussion about phones and a quieter week, see STUDself at /self/.", "source_ids": [ "stothart-notifications", "apple-focus", "mark-profile" ] }, { "label": "Try one optional channel with a suitable check time", "text": "Keep required work, medical, accessibility, caregiving, severe-weather and emergency routes open. Pick one optional channel that interrupts a suitable stationary task and decide when it is reasonable to check it. The batching study makes scheduling a useful question, but its exact schedule is not a prescription. After the task, compare completion and missed contact with your usual arrangement. Restore access if the cost of waiting was higher than expected. A less intrusive change can be successful even if the daily screen total barely changes.", "source_ids": [ "fitz-batching", "apple-focus" ] }, { "label": "Try a workable handoff from evening use to sleep", "text": "For several nights, identify the activity that usually carries you past your intended bedtime and give it a stopping point. Prepare a simple alternative, such as putting the next morning's things in place, without removing needed phone access. Note bedtime, sleep and whether the transition was workable; change the plan if it simply shifts the delay elsewhere. The bedtime pilot supplies bounded evidence, not a rule for every bedroom. The Sleep topic provides further reading, and persistent sleep or mood problems deserve qualified care.", "source_ids": [ "he-bedtime", "eyal-profile", "nimh-help" ] } ] }, { "id": "checking-focus-claims", "role": "perspectives", "title": "Check common focus claims", "intro": "Use these concise verdicts alongside the fuller explanations above. A useful claim says what was measured and leaves room for the limits of the finding.", "items": [ { "label": "Protect demanding tasks around switches", "text": "Claim: Switching between tasks can carry a performance cost. Verdict: established for studied task-switching conditions. The size and practical meaning depend on the task, preparation and measure; there is no universal workday penalty.", "source_ids": [ "kiesel-switching" ] }, { "label": "Use interruption findings within their measured limits", "text": "Claim: Every interruption costs about 23 minutes. Verdict: not supported. Elapsed time before returning to a work sphere includes intervening activity; it is not a universal cognitive recovery period.", "source_ids": [ "mark-fragmentation" ] }, { "label": "Judge multitasking by the task and result", "text": "Claim: People who media multitask are generally worse at attention. Verdict: not established as a general rule. The pooled association is small, varies across measures and leaves causality unresolved.", "source_ids": [ "parry-multitasking" ] }, { "label": "Test phone placement and preserve needed access", "text": "Claim: A phone on the desk always drains your brain. Verdict: not supported. Reviews find limited, outcome-specific effects and methodological uncertainty; they do not establish harm on every task.", "source_ids": [ "parry-presence", "bottger-presence" ] }, { "label": "Evaluate digital breaks without a reset claim", "text": "Claim: A dopamine detox resets the brain. Verdict: not supported. A change in urges or behavior is not evidence that dopamine was depleted or reset on a fixed timer.", "source_ids": [ "berridge-reward" ] }, { "label": "Pair media amount with experience and context", "text": "Claim: More screen time proves social media caused poor mental health. Verdict: not supported by duration alone. The National Academies' adolescent review did not establish population-level causality; specific harms still require attention.", "source_ids": [ "nasem-adolescents" ] }, { "label": "Balance quieter alerts with staying informed", "text": "Claim: Turning off all notifications always feels better. Verdict: not supported. The no-notification group in Fitz and colleagues' trial had more anxiety and fear of missing out; even the three-batch group experienced some increased fear of missing notifications.", "source_ids": [ "fitz-batching" ] } ] } ], "related": [ "habits", "sleep", "anxiety" ] }, "sources": [ { "id": "kiesel-switching", "title": "Control and interference in task switching—A review", "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20804238/", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Task preparation and interference; variable task-switching response-time/error costs.", "limitations": "The PubMed abstract and full author-uploaded review were inspected. Laboratory tasks do not establish a universal recovery time after an interruption." }, { "id": "kiesel-full", "title": "Control and Interference in Task Switching—A Review — author-uploaded full text", "url": "https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46094269_Control_and_Interference_in_Task_Switching-A_Review", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Full author text describes slower responses and increased errors after rule switches, preparation and differing paradigms.", "limitations": "Author-uploaded publication inspected; same work as kiesel-switching, not an independent corroborating study." }, { "id": "mark-fragmentation", "title": "No Task Left Behind? Examining the Nature of Fragmented Work", "url": "https://ics.uci.edu/~gmark/CHI2005.pdf", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Observation of 24 information workers; work-sphere fragmentation and resumption with intervening activities.", "limitations": "Small observational workplace sample; elapsed resumption time is not experimentally measured cognitive recovery from a ping." }, { "id": "stothart-notifications", "title": "The attentional cost of receiving a cell phone notification", "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26121498/", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Notifications disrupted the studied attention task without direct phone interaction.", "limitations": "Abstract inspected; one laboratory task does not establish equal costs for all everyday alerts." }, { "id": "fitz-batching", "title": "Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being", "url": "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57a40c19414fb54f51f8095f/t/614a55faa7b89e25f4e48ad1/1632261627146/2019%2BFitz%2BBatching.pdf", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Four conditions, 237 completing participants in India; three daily batches improved several self-reported outcomes and reduced unlocks while increasing notification FoMO. No-notification delivery increased anxiety.", "limitations": "Published author-hosted PDF methods, Table 2 and results inspected. Multiple exploratory comparisons, self-reported productivity, context-specific sample; hourly batching showed few benefits." }, { "id": "parry-logs", "title": "A systematic review and meta-analysis of discrepancies between logged and self-reported digital media use", "url": "https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/files/219658181/Final_Manuscript.pdf", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Preregistered synthesis of 106 effect sizes; moderate correspondence and inaccurate amount estimates; weaker problematic-use correspondence.", "limitations": "University-hosted accepted manuscript opened. Neither self-report nor logs establish the purpose, individual harm or diagnosis." }, { "id": "parry-multitasking", "title": "“Cognitive control in media multitaskers” ten years on: A meta-analysis", "url": "https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/13303", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "118 assessments; small pooled association with measurement/outcome variation and unresolved causality.", "limitations": "Full journal text inspected; most assessments involved students; habitual media multitasking differs from immediate task competition." }, { "id": "parry-presence", "title": "Does the Mere Presence of a Smartphone Impact Cognitive Performance? A Meta-Analysis of the “Brain Drain Effect”", "url": "https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/does-the-mere-presence-of-a-smartphone-impact-cognitive-performan/", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "University-hosted abstract reports 56 studies, 7,093 participants; only working-memory pooled effect significant; other functions null.", "limitations": "Official abstract inspected, not full publisher article; heterogeneity and poor statistical power limit interpretation." }, { "id": "bottger-presence", "title": "Does the Brain Drain Effect Really Exist? A Meta-Analysis", "url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10525686/", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "22 studies, 43 effects; overall g −0.14, memory −0.23, attention −0.07 nonsignificant; heterogeneous presence/use comparisons.", "limitations": "The full article was reviewed. Its scope differs from Parry’s review, and the pooled standardized effects are not percentages of brainpower." }, { "id": "castelo-blocking", "title": "Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being", "url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11834938/", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Preregistered randomized timing of two-week block, 467 unique participants; objective sustained-attention improvement, calls/texts preserved; 119 compliant.", "limitations": "The full primary article was reviewed. Primary repeated-measures intention-to-treat analyses used complete cases; attrition, low compliance and possible expectancy effects limit interpretation. The study does not establish equivalence with clinical treatment." }, { "id": "dwyer-meals", "title": "Smartphone use undermines enjoyment of face-to-face social interactions", "url": "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57a40c19414fb54f51f8095f/t/5a57cfe70d92975070d73bf5/1515704296209/Dwyer%2BKushlev%2BDunn%2BJESP.pdf", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Restaurant field experiment and experience sampling; distraction and enjoyment under studied phone-use conditions.", "limitations": "Author-hosted manuscript opened; situational average differences do not establish attachment, character or every relationship's needs." }, { "id": "he-bedtime", "title": "Effect of restricting bedtime mobile phone use on sleep, arousal, mood, and working memory: A randomized pilot trial", "url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228756", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "38 randomized participants; four-week intervention, 30-minute pre-bed restriction; improved selected sleep/arousal outcomes.", "limitations": "Full journal article opened. Small selected sample with poor sleep and substantial bedtime use; intervention cannot isolate a single mechanism or establish a universal rule." }, { "id": "leroy-resume", "title": "Task interrupted: A plan for returning helps you move on", "url": "https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/01/16/task-interrupted-a-plan-for-returning-helps-you-move-on/", "kind": "official", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "University account of Leroy and Glomb's four studies, attention residue and ready-to-resume planning improving interrupting-task performance.", "limitations": "University research account inspected, not full journal article; explicitly states return performance on the original task was not tested." }, { "id": "vanzoonen-intrusions", "title": "Managing Daily Work Intrusions: An Intervention to Reduce Attention Residue and Exhaustion", "url": "https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392348289_Managing_daily_work_intrusions_An_intervention_to_reduce_attention_residue_and_exhaustion", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Author-uploaded manuscript methods/results: 50 employees, four days, reduced residue but increased general exhaustion; weakened residue/exhaustion association.", "limitations": "The full author manuscript was inspected. This short Dutch consultancy study had attrition and does not establish fatigue relief or effects of planned breaks." }, { "id": "berridge-reward", "title": "Liking, Wanting and the Incentive-Sensitization Theory of Addiction", "url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5171207/", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Reward-related wanting and liking involve separable mechanisms; addiction is more complex than a pleasure reservoir.", "limitations": "Full author manuscript opened. Addiction neuroscience does not validate a short dopamine reset protocol for ordinary phone use." }, { "id": "nasem-adolescents", "title": "Social Media and Adolescent Health — Chapter 4: Social Media and Adolescent Health", "url": "https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/27396/chapter/6", "kind": "review", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Reviewed committee analysis: insufficient support for population-level causality; differentiated benefits, harms and experiences.", "limitations": "Chapter text inspected; narrative committee synthesis rather than a systematic review; adolescent scope cannot be generalized to every adult." }, { "id": "kushlev-opportunity", "title": "An Opportunity Cost Framework of Digital Well-Being", "url": "https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.70144", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "2026 theoretical framework distinguishes displacement, substitution and interference and compares use with available alternatives.", "limitations": "Journal full text opened. A conceptual synthesis, not a validated diagnostic tool, causal estimate or tested personal regimen." }, { "id": "king-timed-breaks", "title": "Time-Specific Digital Detox Interventions: Effects and Effectiveness Among College Students", "url": "https://assets.pubpub.org/rn8ecc8o/tmb_tmb0000173-31755709329996.pdf", "kind": "study", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "In this 2025 primary paper, 640 college students were randomized to control or 30-minute daily no-screen intervals. The seven-day daily-affect comparison was null, compliance was difficult, and 632 participants entered the analysis.", "limitations": "Full publisher-hosted PDF opened; brief college experiment with self-reported compliance. Actual-practice associations are not equivalent to the randomized main comparison." }, { "id": "nimh-adhd", "title": "ADHD in Adults: 4 Things to Know", "url": "https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/adhd-what-you-need-to-know", "kind": "guideline", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Persistent impairing symptoms across situations, developmental history and qualified assessment; ordinary distraction differs.", "limitations": "Official public guidance opened; educational, not individual diagnosis or medication instruction." }, { "id": "nimh-help", "title": "My Mental Health: Do I Need Help?", "url": "https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/my-mental-health-do-i-need-help", "kind": "guideline", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Severe/persistent functioning changes warrant care; immediate self-harm support via 988 and life-threatening emergencies via 911 in U.S.", "limitations": "Official guidance opened; general triage, U.S. routes; sudden-change and prescriber language also preserves the approved original safety boundary." }, { "id": "nhtsa-safety", "title": "Distracted Driving", "url": "https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving", "kind": "official", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Driving requires full attention; calls, texting and device adjustment create safety risks.", "limitations": "Official guidance opened; local laws vary. Other safety-critical settings retain the approved precaution, rather than a claim that NHTSA directly studied them." }, { "id": "hse-demands", "title": "Management Standards — Demands", "url": "https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/demands.htm", "kind": "guideline", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Workload, work patterns and environment are organizational stress-management concerns.", "limitations": "Official UK workplace guidance opened; no universal schedule and no legal advice about a particular employer." }, { "id": "apple-focus", "title": "Set up a Focus on iPhone", "url": "https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/set-up-a-focus-iphd6288a67f/ios", "kind": "official", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Selected people and apps, schedules and filters; configuration can preserve needed contact. Call options verified on linked apple-allow guidance.", "limitations": "Official current user guide opened; device/version dependent. Feature availability is not evidence of health or productivity benefit." }, { "id": "apple-allow", "title": "Allow or silence notifications for a Focus on iPhone", "url": "https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/allow-or-silence-notifications-for-a-focus-iph21d43af5b/ios", "kind": "official", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "People/app notification controls and call/repeated-call options.", "limitations": "Official linked guide opened; configuration is version dependent and should be tested with needed contacts." }, { "id": "strayer-public", "title": "Up to 27 seconds of inattention after talking to your car or smart phone", "url": "https://unews.utah.edu/articles/up-to-27-seconds-of-inattention-after-talking-to-your-car-or-smart-phone/", "kind": "official", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Official university account makes Strayer's hands-free cognitive-distraction research publicly useful.", "limitations": "University study account opened; particular tested systems/settings, not a universal recovery timer and no desk-task rule." }, { "id": "radesky-public", "title": "Radesky Research — News & Pubs", "url": "https://radesky.lab.medicine.umich.edu/news-pubs", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Official lab documents family-media education, research dissemination and public media coverage.", "limitations": "Official news/publications and About pages opened; public usefulness is not proof of a particular intervention." }, { "id": "miller-working-memory", "title": "How working memory gets you through the day", "url": "https://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-picower-how-working-memory-gets-you-through-the-day-1024", "kind": "official", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Working memory as information maintained and used for ongoing thought/action; Miller's neural account.", "limitations": "Official university research explanation; not a personal capacity score or a universal training prescription." }, { "id": "cht-design", "title": "The CHT Perspective", "url": "https://www.humanetech.com/the-cht-perspective", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Design advocacy identifies infinite scrolling, algorithmic curation and notifications as attention-related design features.", "limitations": "Official advocacy text opened; policy/design lens, not an individual causal health estimate." }, { "id": "newport-public", "title": "Cal Newport — author website", "url": "https://calnewport.com/", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Public work, books and newsletter translating intentional work and digital practices.", "limitations": "Official author site opened; commercial educational framework, not clinical evidence." }, { "id": "question-purpose", "title": "I don't think screen time is the enemy", "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/comments/1rqy6j9/i_dont_think_screen_time_is_the_enemy/", "kind": "question_signal", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Reader question about intentional use versus an unwanted total; relevance only.", "limitations": "Post/thread opened; self-selected personal discussion supplies no factual or clinical authority." }, { "id": "mark-profile", "title": "Gloria Mark — UC Irvine expert profile", "url": "https://experts.communications.uci.edu/profile.php?e=gloria.mark", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Role, psychology PhD, real-world media/attention research and public media work.", "limitations": "Official profile verifies professional scope, not each claim in media coverage." }, { "id": "leroy-profile", "title": "Sophie Leroy — UW Bothell faculty profile", "url": "https://www.uwb.edu/faculty/sophie-leroy/", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Management professor, Business dean, attention-residue research and public research explanation.", "limitations": "The official profile verifies the role and research context. It does not establish a universal resumption timer." }, { "id": "miller-profile", "title": "Earl K. Miller — MIT Picower Institute", "url": "https://picower.mit.edu/earl-k-miller", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Picower Professor of Neuroscience; cognitive control and working-memory research.", "limitations": "The official faculty profile was reviewed. Public neuroscience explanations do not supply a productivity formula." }, { "id": "jha-lab", "title": "The Jha Lab — Exploring Attention and Working Memory", "url": "https://lab.amishi.com/", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Attention/working-memory/mindfulness research and public talks, book and podcast links; university affiliation.", "limitations": "Lab site opened. Miami faculty HTML also retrieved directly to verify Professor of Psychology role; no claim that one duration or program universally works." }, { "id": "jha-profile", "title": "Amishi Jha — University of Miami faculty profile", "url": "https://people.miami.edu/profile/a.jha@miami.edu", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Official biography states psychology professor, Director of Contemplative Neuroscience and psychology PhD; lab/public work context.", "limitations": "The official faculty biography was reviewed. Appointment verification does not establish a training program’s efficacy." }, { "id": "gazzaley-profile", "title": "Adam Gazzaley, M.D., Ph.D. — Neuroscape", "url": "https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/profile/adam-gazzaley/", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "UCSF distinguished professor, Neuroscape founder, cognitive interventions and disclosed commercial/investment roles.", "limitations": "Official profile opened; intervention evidence is program/population/outcome specific and commercial interests matter." }, { "id": "strayer-profile", "title": "David Strayer, Ph.D. — University of Utah", "url": "https://psych.utah.edu/people/faculty/strayer-david.php", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Cognition and neural science professor, psychology PhD, attention/performance and vehicle-distraction work.", "limitations": "Official profile opened; safety-critical driving evidence differs from desk-task experiments." }, { "id": "parry-profile", "title": "Douglas Parry — Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam", "url": "https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/douglas-parry/", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Communication Science assistant professor, PhD, digital-media measurement, cognition and open-science work.", "limitations": "Official profile opened; synthesis inherits limits of included measurements and populations." }, { "id": "kushlev-profile", "title": "Bio — Kostadin Kushlev Ph.D.", "url": "https://www.kushlev.com/bio", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Georgetown psychology associate professor, Happy Tech Lab leadership and public digital-well-being research.", "limitations": "Official biography opened; public relevance does not establish a universal notification or phone rule." }, { "id": "ward-profile", "title": "Adrian Ward — UT Experts", "url": "https://experts.utexas.edu/adrian_ward", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "UT Austin marketing associate professor, psychology PhD, technology/cognition research and media translation.", "limitations": "Official profile opened; prominent original phone-presence findings require later synthesis and replication context." }, { "id": "kuss-profile", "title": "Daria Kuss — Nottingham Trent University", "url": "https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/social-sciences/daria-kuss", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Chartered psychologist/scientist, psychology associate professor, cyberpsychology and addictive-behavior research, public dissemination.", "limitations": "Official profile opened; screen time, urges and an online checklist cannot diagnose a disorder." }, { "id": "radesky-profile", "title": "Radesky Research — Research Team", "url": "https://radesky.lab.medicine.umich.edu/research-team", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Jenny Radesky MD, pediatric associate professor and developmental-behavioral division director.", "limitations": "Official lab team opened; pediatric role does not establish effects in all adults." }, { "id": "newport-profile", "title": "Cal Newport — Georgetown Center for Digital Ethics", "url": "https://digitalethics.georgetown.edu/profiles/cal-newport/", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Provost's Distinguished Professor of Computer Science; field verified separately from author work.", "limitations": "Official appointment page opened; computer-science role is not attention-science or clinical credential." }, { "id": "eyal-profile", "title": "Nir Eyal Official Site: Articles, Videos, and Newsletter", "url": "https://www.nirandfar.com/", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Author/consultant, former Stanford teaching, behavioral-design books and public education.", "limitations": "Official biography opened; commercial frameworks and affiliate activity, not clinician or experimental efficacy evidence." }, { "id": "harris-profile", "title": "Tristan Harris — Center for Humane Technology", "url": "https://www.humanetech.com/team-board/tristan-harris", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Co-founder/president, former Google design ethicist, documentary, podcast and policy communication.", "limitations": "Official organization profile opened; advocacy is distinct from diagnosis or clinical intervention research." }, { "id": "lembke-profile", "title": "Anna Lembke, MD — Stanford Profiles", "url": "https://profiles.stanford.edu/anna-lembke", "kind": "professional", "accessed_at": "2026-10-01", "supports": "Stanford professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine; public book/documentary education.", "limitations": "Official biography and appointments opened; clinical expertise does not establish addiction in ordinary phone users or a dopamine reset timer." } ], "professional_panel": [ { "name": "Gloria Mark", "credential": "PhD in psychology; UC Irvine Chancellor's Professor of Informatics", "official_url": "https://experts.communications.uci.edu/profile.php?e=gloria.mark", "public_usefulness": "Official profile documents broad media coverage and public talks translating real-world multitasking.", "contribution": "Separate fragmented work, resumption, attention and stress from a fixed cognitive recovery timer.", "boundary": "Small field observations and public summaries do not establish one attention span, recovery time or optimal block.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Sophie Leroy", "credential": "PhD; Professor of Management and Dean, UW Bothell School of Business", "official_url": "https://www.uwb.edu/faculty/sophie-leroy/", "public_usefulness": "Official faculty research explanation and UW News account make attention residue and ready-to-resume planning understandable.", "contribution": "Explain lingering thoughts after switching and assess a short return cue without promising faster later resumption.", "boundary": "The 2018 studies did not test original-task performance after return; later field findings include effort costs.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Earl K. Miller", "credential": "MIT Picower Professor of Neuroscience; Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences", "official_url": "https://picower.mit.edu/earl-k-miller", "public_usefulness": "Opened MIT News and institute research pages translate working memory and cognitive control for a general reader.", "contribution": "Define information held and used during demanding thought, keeping exact cognitive tasks visible.", "boundary": "Neural mechanisms do not supply a universal productivity penalty, personal diagnosis or phone-free dose.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Amishi Jha", "credential": "PhD; Professor of Psychology and Director of Contemplative Neuroscience, University of Miami", "official_url": "https://people.miami.edu/profile/a.jha@miami.edu", "public_usefulness": "Lab website documents Peak Mind, public interviews, podcasts and talks about attention and training.", "contribution": "Distinguish attention and working memory and ask which training program helps which population and outcome.", "boundary": "Military, professional and other program findings do not create a guaranteed universal mindfulness treatment.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Adam Gazzaley", "credential": "MD, PhD; UCSF David Dolby Distinguished Professor; Neuroscape Founder and Executive Director", "official_url": "https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/profile/adam-gazzaley/", "public_usefulness": "Official biography documents public cognitive-science translation, books, talks and technology-intervention research.", "contribution": "Keep cognitive-control measures, aging and tested interventions distinct from generic brain-training promises.", "boundary": "Program/population specificity and disclosed technology-company and investment interests require attention.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "David Strayer", "credential": "PhD in psychology; University of Utah Professor, Cognition and Neural Science", "official_url": "https://psych.utah.edu/people/faculty/strayer-david.php", "public_usefulness": "Official university public study account and Applied Cognition Lab explain hands-free vehicle distraction and its policy relevance.", "contribution": "Keep hazardous tasks in a stricter safety category than stationary personal focus experiments.", "boundary": "Driving research does not establish an optimal phone position for every desk task or replace local safety rules.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Douglas Parry", "credential": "PhD in Socio-Informatics; Communication Science Assistant Professor, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam", "official_url": "https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/douglas-parry/", "public_usefulness": "Accessible reviews address public questions about screen totals, media multitasking and phone-presence headlines.", "contribution": "Compare logs with remembered use and teach how outcome and measurement differences limit broad claims.", "boundary": "Meta-analysis cannot resolve all causal mechanisms, personal motives, clinical impairment or the best individual control.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Kostadin Kushlev", "credential": "PhD; Georgetown Associate Professor of Psychology and Happy Tech Lab director", "official_url": "https://www.kushlev.com/bio", "public_usefulness": "Official research pages frame accessible questions about batching, digital breaks and everyday digital well-being.", "contribution": "Teach notification tradeoffs and distinguish what phone use adds, replaces and interrupts.", "boundary": "Notification outcomes differ across schedules and contexts; opportunity-cost framework is conceptual rather than a validated regimen.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Adrian F. Ward", "credential": "PhD in psychology; Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Texas at Austin", "official_url": "https://experts.utexas.edu/adrian_ward", "public_usefulness": "Official biography documents public coverage and teaching about the psychology of technology.", "contribution": "Connect original phone-presence questions with later reviews and the specific mobile-internet block trial.", "boundary": "Mixed presence evidence and demanding intervention methods prevent an always-harmful phone-placement rule.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Daria Kuss", "credential": "PhD; Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist; Nottingham Trent Associate Professor in Psychology", "official_url": "https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/social-sciences/daria-kuss", "public_usefulness": "Official profile documents media education, cyberpsychology books and professional/government engagement.", "contribution": "Keep ordinary use, unwanted repeated behavior, distress and diagnosable conditions distinct.", "boundary": "No duration, urge or public checklist is sufficient to diagnose addiction or select treatment.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Jenny Radesky", "credential": "MD; University of Michigan Associate Professor of Pediatrics; Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics division director", "official_url": "https://radesky.lab.medicine.umich.edu/research-team", "public_usefulness": "Official family-media research and professional pediatric education explain development, context and digital design.", "contribution": "Ask what young people see, do and need online rather than relying on duration alone.", "boundary": "Pediatric and family evidence cannot be generalized to every adult or used to diagnose one child.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Cal Newport", "credential": "Georgetown Provost's Distinguished Professor of Computer Science; public work/digital-practice author", "official_url": "https://digitalethics.georgetown.edu/profiles/cal-newport/", "public_usefulness": "Official author site and books make protected work and intentional tool choice accessible to broad audiences.", "contribution": "Give protected work and communication expectations a concrete planning vocabulary.", "boundary": "Computer-science appointment and commercial books do not establish a universal scientific focus-block length or clinical treatment.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Nir Eyal", "credential": "Behavioral-design author and consultant; former Stanford Graduate School of Business and d.school instructor", "official_url": "https://www.nirandfar.com/", "public_usefulness": "Official site provides public articles and books on habits, triggers, attention and environment design.", "contribution": "Notice a trigger, prepare an alternative and make an everyday plan specific enough to review.", "boundary": "Commercial education, consulting and affiliate activity; not a clinical credential or proof of one effective personal regimen.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Tristan Harris", "credential": "Center for Humane Technology co-founder and president; former Google design ethicist", "official_url": "https://www.humanetech.com/team-board/tristan-harris", "public_usefulness": "Official profile documents public policy communication, The Social Dilemma and Your Undivided Attention.", "contribution": "Include platform incentives and attention-related design rather than placing the whole burden on user willpower.", "boundary": "Design advocacy and industry experience do not establish an individual diagnosis, causal health estimate or treatment.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" }, { "name": "Anna Lembke", "credential": "MD; Stanford Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine", "official_url": "https://profiles.stanford.edu/anna-lembke", "public_usefulness": "Official biography documents Dopamine Nation, public addiction education and documentary participation.", "contribution": "Recognize when loss of control, distress and impaired functioning require qualified care.", "boundary": "Clinical addiction expertise does not make ordinary phone use addiction or establish a short dopamine reset protocol.", "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01" } ] }