Technologies

Your Phone Pinging Hijacks Your Brain for 7 Seconds, Study Finds

It’s tough to ignore the buzz of your phone when a new message arrives.

The soft ping or buzz on your phone that lets you know a new message has arrived is hard to ignore. But it can mean trouble when it’s time to concentrate on a task, according to a new study that will be published in the June issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

The study found that whenever we receive a message notification, it interrupts our concentration for 7 seconds. It turns out that the type of information that we see in the notification also matters. The more personally relevant the notification, the larger the distraction.

«This interruption likely arises from several mechanisms, such as [a notification’s] perceptual prominence, the conditioning acquired through repeated exposure, and the possible social significance,» Hippolyte Fournier, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and the study’s first author, told CNET.

While 7 seconds may not seem like much, we get a lot of notifications throughout the day, and those seconds can add up.

«We observed that both the volume of notifications and how often individuals check their smartphones were linked to greater disruption,» Fournier said. «This pattern suggests that the fragmented nature of smartphone use, rather than simply total usage duration, may be a key factor in understanding how digital technologies influence attentional processes.»

Attention hijack

The study used a Stroop task, a test that measures how quickly you can process information and how well you can focus. Colored words flash across a screen for the test. The font of each word is one color, but the text of the word is a different color. So the word «blue» might be written in green font.

You have to identify the font color and ignore the color that the word spells out. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. You can take the test yourself using this YouTube video.

The researchers recruited 180 university students for the study. The students were randomly split up into three groups. All students received a Stroop task, and notifications popped up on the screen as they completed the test. But the researchers slightly changed the experiment for each group.

The researchers told the first group that the screen was mirroring their personal phones, so the students thought they were seeing their real notifications.

The second group saw pop-ups on the screen that looked like real social media notifications, but the group knew they were false. This helped the researchers test how learned habits impact attention, without personal relevance.

The third group saw only blurry notifications, with illegible text. The researchers used this test to determine how the visual distraction of an unexpected pop-up affected the group’s attention.

The notifications slowed students’ ability to process information by about 7 seconds across all three groups. But for students who thought they were getting real notifications, the delay was more pronounced.

«Although it is well documented that notifications can automatically attract attention, far less is understood about the cognitive processes that drive this attentional capture and the reasons why some people may be more susceptible than others,» Fournier said. «Our objective was to gain a better understanding of both the underlying mechanisms and the individual differences that could account for this variability in sensitivity.»

Brain delay

In the US, 90% of all people own a smartphone, according to Pew Research, and a Harmony Healthcare IT study found that we spend over 5 hours a day using them. But how long we spend on our phones may not matter as much as how often we check our notifications.

«In a lab study designed to mimic real-life notification exposure, we found that the frequency of notifications and checking habits mattered more than total screen time,» Fabian Ringeval, another of the paper’s authors, wrote in a LinkedIn post. «The more often we interact with our phones, the more vulnerable our attention becomes to interruption.»

Anna Lembke, a psychiatry professor at Stanford, told CNET that the study mirrors what she sees clinically and in research literature, «namely that the level of engagement — for example how many notifications a person gets and how quickly they respond to notifications — is as big a predictor, or an even bigger predictor, of harmful, problematic use than time spent.»

Researchers found that study participants received about 100 notifications per day. So the notifications we get on our phones could be slowing down our cognitive abilities through near-constant distraction.

«In everyday situations that require continuous attention — like driving or learning — even short slowdowns can add up,» Ringeval wrote. «Our findings suggest that improving digital well-being may be less about ‘using our phones less’ and more about reducing unnecessary interruptions.»

Lembke said it’s fair to worry about how smartphone notifications impact our attention, «which is why platforms for minors should silence notifications by default and make it difficult to re-activate notifications without parental consent, and why adults should electively turn off notifications to improve concentration and well-being, with rare exceptions for safety reasons.»

Technologies

Ring Finally Goes Wire-Free for Its Latest 4K Video Doorbells

The launch of battery-powered versions of the company’s powerful AI doorbells has been highly anticipated.

Security company Ring on Wednesday announced a significant expansion of its video doorbell line, notably battery-powered versions of both its 4K and 2K models, priced from $80.

Both Amazon’s Ring and Google Nest debuted high-resolution video doorbells with new AI features in the fall of 2025. But they were wired only, and in my tests, I kept thinking, «I sure wish there were battery models available.»

Wireless video doorbells are far better for most front doors than models that require connecting to your existing doorbell wiring, which is often poorly positioned for a security camera. Mine, for example, is located on a wall beside my door that’s useless for any kind of video views, no matter how you angle a lens.

«Enhancing image quality in battery-powered doorbells means customers can enjoy reliable performance with the flexibility to install devices in a way that suits their space, whether renting or living in homes without existing wiring,» a Ring spokesperson said.

At first, I wondered whether the higher 4K resolutions and more advanced AI features would use too much power to support batteries. If so, Ring is the first to fix that issue with this suite of doorbells, including these models available for preorder right now:

Ring Battery Doorbell Pro — $250: This model offers up to 4K resolution and 10x zoom, and Ring says it features a redesigned internal architecture to support battery power.
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus (2nd-gen) — $180: This model includes a quick-release battery pack along with 2K video.
Ring Battery Doorbell (2nd-gen) — $100: This video doorbell includes 2K video, a 6x zoom and what Ring calls a «streamlined, rechargeable design,» which means you take the entire video doorbell to charge it, not just the battery — a design I greatly prefer, since Ring’s battery packs can get fiddly.

There’s also a new version of a Ring wired doorbell with 2K resolution, starting at $80. It wouldn’t be Ring without a plethora of doorbell devices to confuse newcomers, which is why I have a guide specifically for Ring video doorbells that will need some updating once I finish testing these new models.

Resolution plus an intelligence upgrade

Ring’s ordinary subscriptions of the Ring Protect plan give you cloud video storage and intelligent alerts for people, packages and vehicles, which are important but not really advanced AI. But spring for the $20-per-month Ring AI Pro cam, and this new generation of cameras opens up other capabilities.

Ring’s AI features include AI video descriptions, so if you get an alert, you can also get a summary of what the doorbell saw, including people and activities. A similar feature lets you search your video history with specific terms, such as «bike,» «truck» and so on. You also get the beta version of Ring’s Familiar Faces feature, which can ID logged faces of people who approach.

If these AI features make you uneasy and you’d rather protect your privacy, the best option is to avoid a subscription altogether or choose a lower-tier plan that gives you cloud storage without AI.

I also have a guide on how to turn off Ring’s detection and data-sharing features that might make you nervous, so you can keep what you like while ditching what you don’t.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 26.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Baseball is back! You’ll see baseball images patterned throughout today’s Mini Crossword grid, and when you solve the puzzle, they’ll spell out a certain word. Play ball! Er, read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Degrees for boardroom execs
Answer: MBAS

5A clue: «___ want for Christmas …»
Answer: ALLI

6A clue: What Hamlet holds while giving his «Alas, poor Yorick!» speech
Answer: SKULL

7A clue: Wild, as an animal
Answer: FERAL

8A clue: Sphere
Answer: ORB

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Word after «match» or «mischief»
Answer: MAKER

2D clue: Bit of writing on a book jacket
Answer: BLURB

3D clue: Penne ___ vodka
Answer: ALLA

4D clue: Window ledge
Answer: SILL

6D clue: Bay Area airport, for short
Answer: SFO

Technologies

McDonald’s KPop Demon Hunter Meals Include Bright Purple Nugget Sauce

The Derpy McFlurry mixes popping boba pearls and berry sauce into a soft-serve dessert.

McDonald’s has seen success with themed combo meals, including its holiday Grinch Meal. Now, the fast-food chain is capitalizing on Netflix’s Oscar-winning animated film, KPop Demon Hunters, with new upcoming menu items and both a breakfast meal and a lunch/dinner offering. Let’s hope you like the color purple.

The HUNTR/X Meal, named for the K-pop girl group in the movie, is a 10-piece chicken McNuggets meal that includes a medium drink and three special menu items.

Ramyeon McShaker fries come with a small bag of soy, garlic, sesame and spice seasoning, along with regular McDonald’s french fries. You sprinkle the seasoning into the provided bag, dump in the fries, shake it all up and eat.

The meal includes two new sauces for the fries and nuggets. Hunter sauce is a sweet chili sauce mixing notes of chili, garlic and pepper. But my favorite item on this new menu is Demon sauce, a bold mustard sauce with some heat and a bold purple color. There’s just not enough dark purple food out there.

There’s also a new dessert, the Derpy McFlurry, which blends creamy vanilla soft serve with berry-flavored popping boba pearls, served with a swirl of wild berry sauce. McDonald’s named it for the supernatural feline, Derpy Tiger, from the movie.

If breakfast is your bag, the new morning meal is the Saja Boys Breakfast Meal, named for the movie’s boy band.

It includes a Spicy Saja McMuffin sandwich, which is a sausage McMuffin with egg and a spicy Saja sauce, hash browns and a small drink.

Both meals come with a photocard for one of the bands and a Derpy card. The Derpy card includes a QR code you can scan to unlock online content about the film.

The full KPop Demon Hunters menu should be available at participating McDonald’s beginning March 31.

The McDonald’s Grinch meal (and its accompanying patterned socks) sold out quickly, so KPop Demon Hunters fans may want to mark their calendars and nab a meal when they are released.