Putting a phone on silent is often seen as a sensible choice. The idea is simple: if the buzzing stops, people can enjoy some quiet time and look at the screen less. But research on notification settings suggests the result may not be so simple.
A study found that silencing a phone may not work as expected. The research, from Penn State, was published in Computers in Human Behavior in 2022. The team analyzed screen-time data from 138 smartphone users. People checked their phones an average of 52.9 times a day when sound or vibration was on. That number nearly doubled to 98.2 times a day when the phone was fully silenced. In other words, the average person looked at the phone far more often once the sound was gone.
The difference was even more pronounced among people who especially dislike missing out on what their friends are doing, a trait measured by a questionnaire. Their checks rose from about 50 a day on vibrate to roughly 120 a day on silent.
Study author S. Shyam Sundar explained that removing the sound doesn't remove the uncertainty about what might be happening on the phone. Without a buzz or a ping, a person can't tell whether anything new has arrived. For some people, that uncertainty is harder to ignore than an occasional buzz, so they look at the screen more often just to find out.
The findings come from patterns in people's phone use, so they don't prove that silent mode itself causes more checking. Other factors may also play a role. Still, the findings suggest that muting a phone doesn't always mean checking it less, and that people's reasons for checking may matter too.
Silence may stop the buzzing, but it doesn't always stop the wondering.