Are smartphones making us STUPID?

'Googling' information is making us mentally lazy, study claims.

Smartphones are making us less able to think for ourselves, researchers have claimed.

A study has shown that people who have strong cognitive skills spend less time on their devices than those with less brain power.

Those who think in an analytical way also pick up their phone less frequently because they remember things or are able to work problems out for themselves.

Smartphones are making us less able to think for ourselves, researchers have claimed. Gordon Pennycook, a PhD candidate and co-lead author of the study, said that heavy smartphone users may look up information that they actually know ‘but are unwilling to make the effort to actually think about it’ (stock image shown)

         The study said that smartphones were making people lazier than ever as we saw them as an ‘extension of our mind’.

Googling information we don’t know is replacing natural curiosity - a trend that will only get worse in the future.

        The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and involved studying 660 people.

The team looked at various measures of brain power and cognitive skills ranging from intuitive to analytical, along with verbal and numeracy skills.

         They also asked all of those taking part to write down their smartphone habits.

The findings showed a clear link between less time spent on the phone and stronger cognitive skills and greater willingness to think in an analytical way.

Gordon Pennycook, a PhD candidate and co-lead author of the study, said that heavy smartphone users may look up information that they actually know ‘but are unwilling to make the effort to actually think about it’.

       He said: ‘Our research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence’.

Nathaniel Barr, the other lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher, added that the findings could have consequences as people get older.

He said: ‘Decades of research has revealed that humans are eager to avoid expending effort when problem-solving and it seems likely that people will increasingly use their smartphones as an extended mind.

‘Our reliance on smartphones and other devices will likely only continue to rise.

‘It’s important to understand how smartphones affect and relate to human psychology before these technologies are so fully ingrained that it’s hard to recall what life was like without them.

‘We may already be at that point.’