Smartphones and Mental Focus

Mike Elgan reports that smartphones disrupt mental focus, resulting in a 10%-25% decline in attentiveness at work. A study commissioned by Kaspersky Labs indicates that employees who do not bring their smartphones to work are 26 percent more productive. Just having a powered-up phone is distracting -- Jill Elish reports on a Florida State University study showing that cell phone notifications approach the distraction factor of reading a text message.

For more information on this issues, Elgan recommends Sherry Turkle's book, Reclaiming the Conversation, and mentions additional books on the topic will be published later this year. Elgan interviewed Turkle in 2015.

Elgan also highlights two firms, Siempo and Light Phone which are preparing to distribute limited-feature phones for corporate use.

-DD