push notifications they want to maximize the amount of time we spend on this because the more we use those apps the more information on they can collect which they can monetize for advertising you're a scientist heading back from the grid the university frank explains what effect this has on our brains. this is where distraction happens when i concentrate on one task these brain regions are active. all sensory stimuli are filtered out by this region the so-called dns stuff blocking access but when there is a stimulus that's very different to other stimuli it gets through and distracts. and. this is what smartphone and app developers capitalize on they want to create products that permanently grab our attention with push notifications vibrations audio signals and so forth. new stimuli mean different brain