Being near your smartphone makes you stupider, study finds

We all knew that we’ve been slowly nurturing an addiction to our smartphones, but researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have further concluded that simply being in close proximity to our phones is having adverse effects on our cognitive abilities. Using a sample size of nearly 800 phone users, the study examined "the brain's ability to hold and process data at any given time."   Subjects were selected at random to either place their phone face down in front of them, inside their pocket, or in another room – all of which were instructed to put their devices on silent. ...