Having A Bad Day? Maybe It’s Your Smartphone!

Scientists in the UK state that one of the reasons of our bad moods might be caused by our smartphones.

According to the Nottingham Trent University, notifications from our phones tend to upset us, they might make us feel afraid, hostiles and even ashamed more than when we used to pick up phone calls. They influence our emotions in a negative way.

Researchers put emphasis on notifications associated with work, updates as well as those related to Wi-Fi availability as the main reasons for those mood changes.

Dr Eiman Kanjo argues “It is clear that social notifications make people happy, but when they receive lots of work-related and or non-human notifications, the opposite effect occurs”. People do not get upset when notifications are connected to a social area.

Naturally, notifications coming from friends help us feel confident and cheerful just because it gives us the idea of belonging to a certain group. They are not considered to trigger negative emotions.

In order to collect information about the bad moods, scientists ask people, who were participating in the investigation, to download an app which could keep a record of the notification for a five-week period.

The conclusion was that 50 participants received over half million notifications during that time and they reported their reactions in a questionnaire just three times a day.

Notifications not only affect people’s mood when related to work and internet needs but that mood might influence any other aspect of our everyday life.

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