Ever wondered what would happen if you asked students to do without their cell phones?

Ron Srigley, a teacher at Humber College and Laurentian University, carried out this experiment in his philosophy class after noticing that his students failed a midterm. When Srigley asked his class what went wrong, he was met with “We don’t understand what the books say, sir. We don’t understand the words.”

He decided he would offer his students extra credit if they handed in their phones for nine whole days and wrote about their experience living without these devices; only twelve students in his class agreed.

Of course, you would feel lost and incomplete if you had to give up something you use almost 24/7. To most people, the simple cell phone could mean so much to them that they’d feel like a part of them was missing if they spent a few hours, let alone nine days, without their phones. And that’s understandable. Technology has advanced so far that we couldn’t have possibly predicted that our entire lives would be saved on our phones. Photos, messages from loved ones, music, videos, all saved over the course of years on a single device.

Srigley reports that without their phones, most of his students initially felt lost and disoriented; some even frightened. But after a couple of days, they started to come to the realization that their phones were limiting their relationships with the people around them, and even how using their phones almost constantly was disconnecting them from the real world.

One of Srigley’s students recounts the encounter she had when she asked a stranger for the time. “Why do you need to ask me the time? Everyone has a cell phone. You must be weird or something.” She goes as far to say that almost everyone she passed in the hallway would immediately take out their phones before she could even maintain eye contact with them.

James, another student of Srigley, explains that while pulling out your phone while in the midst of a face-to-face conversation or interaction is rude, it is relatively normal nowadays. Without his phone, James found himself forced to look people in the eye and actually maintain a conversation.

10 out of the twelve students reported that their phones were limiting their relationships in real life. They admitted that communication was easy through phones, but 8 out of the twelve were happy to not answer text messages on a daily basis or even look at posts on social media. “It felt so free without one and it was nice knowing no one could bother me when I didn’t want to be bothered,” wrote a student named William.

While technologists attempt to convince us that their devices are designed to make us more productive, I think we can all agree that it’s quite the opposite. “Writing a paper and not having a phone boosted productivity at least twice as much,” Elliott claimed. Stewart recalled that he could sit down and focus on writing a paper without his device. Janet, who seemingly missed her phone the most out of everyone, admitted that she was able to pay attention in class better and the days without her phone made her more productive.

During the experiment, students started to worry that their addictions to their phones would deprive them of real-world relationships. “It is almost like the earth stood still and I actually looked around and cared about current events … This experiment has made many things clear to me and one thing is for sure, I am going to cut back the time I am on my cell phone substantially,” James revealed.

Sure, the mobile phone is a necessity for most people. Take the example of students away from home – their phones are the only way of staying in communication with their parents and loved ones. Karen Fingerman, University of Texas at Austin, wrote “only half of [American] parents reported contact with a grown child at least once a week.”

It’s obvious that while mobile phones can be essential to everyday life, they pose a threat to productivity. Spending a week or two away from your phone may be able to give you a new perspective to life; to show you that there’s more than just texting and social media and that your relationships in real-life matter the most.

Read Ron Srigley’s full experiment here!