What Smartphones, Ethnomethodology, and Bystander Inaccessibility Can Teach Us About Better Design?

In United States 81% owns a smartphone [1] and they are routinely used in the presence of others. How this impacts relationships with collocated others regularly hits the headlines [2–3]. Previous research suggests various negative effects. Smartphone use can be distracting and undermine the benefits of social interactions [4], which have previously found to be so crucial to psychological well-being [5]. Although often aiming for connection with distant others, interactions online do not provide the same sense of social support as collocated interactions [6]. Being distracted in collocated interactions due to smartphone use therefore seems like an ill-chosen trade-off.