Mobistar launches the BlokBlock app to improve concentration while preparing for exams
Brussels, 4 June 2014 - Just before the start of the “student block” (exam preparation period), telecom operator Mobistar is launching a mobile application to help students avoid being distracted by their smartphone while studying. The application, called BlokBlock, temporarily blocks the use of the smartphone so that students don´t have their concentration interrupted while studying. And that’s important, because research has demonstrated that on average we look at our smartphone 150 times a day, which causes a huge reduction in the ability to focus. BlokBlock is a free application that is available for Android users via Google Play.
Mobistar is launching the smartphone application BlokBlock at a time when hundreds of thousands of students in our country are entering their exam period, a phase when distractions and loss of concentration become their greatest enemies. And certainly with the football World Cup in Brazil approaching … Research by the University of Antwerp shows that the chances of success at such a moment decline by 10 percent. Today, football matches are easy to follow via smartphone, and that can prove too great a temptation for many students.
The users of the application themselves set a timer for the number of minutes they wish to study and thus do not want to be disturbed, as well as for how long of a break they will allow themselves. Once the application is set, during the periods they want to study the students receive on their smartphone an adapted screen lock with a timer indicating the number of minutes they still have to work. Thus announcements and pop-ups of incoming messages, from e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp and e-mail, are blocked. Only telephone calls are visible, but not audible. Naturally, even with the blocking it is possible to answer calls and make emergency calls. Separate screens have also been developed that show how long students can continue to enjoy their well-deserved break.
The well-known neuropsychiatrist Theo Compernolle, who has specialised in studying our brain’s limitations, writes in his book BrainChains (brainchains.org) that smartphones are constantly putting our brain on a state of alert and that, as a result, it works less effectively. We look at our smartphones up to 150 times a day on average. And other research has shown that students preparing for their exams can concentrate on a single task for an average span of no more than six minutes. So it´s no surprise that smartphones and studying don´t always go together.
"Because we have more and more applications on our smartphones and young people are making increasing use of them, for students it is ever more difficult to concentrate during the preparation period", says Mobistar spokeswoman Patti Verdoodt. "With BlokBlock, Mobistar wants to support students during their exam period and help them focus better. An encouraging message always appears on the locking screen during the study period or break.”
BlokBlock can be downloaded free of charge in the Google Play store, and for the moment is only available for Android users.