Kushlev told VICE that cases of adults who experience symptoms of ADHD or other attention disorders (yet haven't been formally diagnosed) have become more commonplace, adding that it may be because society typically thinks of conditions like ADHD as childhood conditions and don't get properly inspected by a doctor. During the first week, we asked half the participants to minimize phone interruptions by activating the “do-not-disturb” settings and keeping their phones out of sight and far from reach. Measuring inattentiveness and hyperactivity 
 
 We measured inattentiveness and hyperactivity by asking participants to identify how frequently they had experienced 18 symptoms of ADHD over each of the two weeks. Because ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with complex neurological and developmental causes, these findings in no way suggest that smartphones can cause ADHD.
– You may not have ADHD, but your smartphone could certainly be making you feel like you do, according to a study published this month. Researchers took 221 students at the University of British Columbia and split them into two groups. For one week, half the students turned their phones to "do not disturb" and put them out of reach and out of sight as much as possible while the rest kept using their phones as normal. The groups switched for the next week. “The results were clear: more frequent phone interruptions made people less attentive and more hyperactive," researcher Kostadin Kushlev writes in Quartz. Researchers came to that conclusion by asking participants how often they experienced 18 symptoms—trouble listening, restlessness, careless mistakes, etc.—associated with ADHD during the two-week experiment. According to Vice, the students—none of whom had been diagnosed with ADHD—were more distracted, anxious, and inattentive and more often bored during the week they were using their phones. And while smartphones aren't giving people ADHD, the study concludes they are causing ADHD-like symptoms. “These findings should concern us," Kushlev writes in Quartz. "Smartphones could be harming the productivity, relationships, and well-being of millions.” Luckily, there's an easy fix: Turn off your notifications and take a break from your phone whenever possible.