Now imagine a typical lunch hour scenario between two co-workers who sit to eat together and chat for a while after exchanging some work-related information. As soon as the time for the lunch comes, one of them lays his/her smartphone face down on the table. Most people wouldn't give it a second thought. For someone, it's just good manners while other will find nothing special in such behavior at all.
However, psychologists have become rather concerned about the impact that smart devices have on people's ability to communicate even if those are not currently in use. Positioning phones in a certain way is believed to affect one's ability to focus on the interaction with another individual and communicate effectively.
The significance of attention
Human conversations demand a lot of mental effort to be made despite appearances. People need to listen, comprehend what another person said and process the information. They need to understand the tone and body language in order to form a response to another person's statement. When there is an alternative source of attention that can distract you, things change.
According to a study published in Scientific Reports, even presence of a smartphone can have negative effects on one's attention performance. It was argued that visible phones might be consuming cognitive resources without any active participation since they were associated with possible notifications. This discovery indicates that smartphones could affect the flow of a conversation even before anyone grabs them to attend to the message.
The problem discussed above is not only a matter of being polite. Scientists have shifted their perception of placing a phone from the realm of etiquette to that of attention management. Face-down placement eliminates possible cues related to incoming notifications and minimizes the chance that the device will grab attention right away.
As scientists say, this helps individuals pay attention to what is going on around them rather than be distracted by anything else. Although scientists do not claim that all of those placing smartphones face-down intentionally seek to prevent distractions, it still proves that less cues mean easier engagement in conversations. As indicated in the researches conducted regarding smartphone presence, visible phones could distract people despite all their concentration on the topic.
