SODAS Scientists add nuance to alarmist debate about consequences of smartphone-use
Over the last couple of weeks, a debate has been taking place in Danish media about the negative consequences of an extensive use of smartphones. At SODAS, several research projects focus specifically on the topic of smartphone use and its consequences. Here, we highlight three of our researchers, who have appeared in the media within the last week.
Andreas Bjerre Nielsen first featured in an article in Weekendavisen, where he discussed a study published in Psychological Science by himself and SODAS colleagues, which shows that there is in fact no clear relationship between student's use of smartphones in class and their performances in classrooms. He also pointed out the need to supplement quantitative studies of ban on smartphones with ethnographic approaches. Check out the article here.
Next up, Kristoffer Albris was interviewed on Danish Radio (P1), where he talked about the use of social media. With reference to his own and other’s research in the DISTRACT project, he stressed that whereas certain kind of smartphione use might be deemed problematic, it is questionable whether it is an actual addiction in line with nicotine addiction.
Immediately after this interview, as part of the same radio show on P1, Morten Axel Pedersen was interviewed about how some people imagine and treat AI and other forms of modern technology as non-human agents, and how this agency sometimes is understood to have either a god or demon-like qualities (same link as before).