Over-reliance on smartphones leads to a lack of critical thinking.

Instead of using smartphones to address personal needs, people are becoming dependent on them for thinking.

New research indicates that the convenience of smartphones makes users lazy thinkers. Photo: Fotolia

"Individuals unwilling to engage in discussions often rely on the internet from their smartphones," according to new research by psychologists at the University of Waterloo, Canada, published in Computers in Human Behavior.

Research suggests that people who think intuitively when using smartphones often rely on the device's search engine rather than their brainpower. Smartphones make them even lazier. "They might find information that they actually know or could easily find, but they don't voluntarily, really try to think about it," said Gordon Pennycook, co-author of the study.

In three studies involving 660 people, scientists examined various computational skills, including different cognitive styles ranging from intuitive to analytical thinking, along with mathematical and linguistic skills. They then considered participants' phone usage habits.

Participants in the study who demonstrated stronger cognitive skills and a greater willingness to think analytically spent less time using their smartphone search engines. "Our research supports a link between excessive smartphone use and declining intelligence," Pennycook said. "Whether smartphones actually reduce intelligence remains an open question requiring further research."

According to last year's predictions, the number of smartphone users would surpass 2 billion in 2016. In other words, more than a quarter of the world's population would use smartphones. This number is expected to increase to over 2.56 billion, equivalent to one-third of the world's population, by 2018.

A large number of smartphones will increase in China, which currently has over 500 million users. This number is predicted to rise to over 700 million by 2018.

According to VnExpress