A new study on smartphones has come to an alarming conclusion: they may be making you deaf.

The study by UCL indicates that hearing and vision senses may be shut off if you concentrate too much on a visual task from your smartphone, according to a Business Standard report.

Researchers examined a person’s ability to detect sound during a task that was very visually demanding, and they found that the subjects had difficulty detecting these sounds despite the fact that they were clearly audible and they were detected just find when the visual task in question was quite easy.

It indicates that people are having an “inattentional deafness” when focusing on visual tasks from a smartphone, which results in not noticing sounds despite the fact that they are clearly audible.

It’s a concerning finding because of the fact that people often aren’t paying attention when on their iPhones or Android devices, paying more attention to the visual cues they get from their smartphones and not noticing a potential danger, such as from crossing a crosswalk.

The findings were published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

For deaf people, the question is a bit more complicated. Smartphones have made life easier for deaf people, but they may come at the expense of social clubs for the deaf, according to a BBC report.

Smartphones have provided new opportunities for the deaf, allowing them to order things via phone or communicate with others in a way they might not have been able to before.

But technology may result in deaf people not relying on each other as much, which may be a good thing for some but may be a bad thing for others who suggest that it results in a lack of intimacy between like-minded individuals over convenience.