Posted: July 7th, 2003 | No Comments »
I stubbled on an article in the NY Times on addiction to information. Here are the parts I found most informative. So how much is too much!? And is multitasking counterproductive!? Based on this article, I must admit that it makes me consider taking more Internet-free weekends:
“It’s hard to concentrate on one thing,” he said, adding: “I think I have a condition.”
For all the efficiency gains that it seemingly provides, the constant stream of data can interrupt not just dinner and family time, but also meetings and creative time, and it can prove very tough to turn off.
Others may be sitting at a desk and engaging in conversation on two phones, one at each ear. At social events, or in the grandstand at their children’s soccer games, they read news feeds on mobile devices instead of chatting with actual human beings.
they are compulsively drawn to the constant stimulation provided by incoming data. Call it O.C.D. – online compulsive disorder.
Dr. Hallowell and John Ratey, an associate professor at Harvard and a psychiatrist with an expertise in attention deficit disorder, are among a growing number of physicians and sociologists who are assessing how technology affects attention span, creativity and focus. Though many people regard multitasking as a social annoyance, these two and others are asking whether it is counterproductive, and even addicting.
The pair have their own term for this condition: pseudo-attention deficit disorder. Its sufferers do not have actual A.D.D., but, influenced by technology and the pace of modern life, have developed shorter attention spans.
According to research compiled by David E. Meyer, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, multitaskers actually hinder their productivity by trying to accomplish two things at once. Mr. Meyer has found that people who switch back and forth between two tasks, like exchanging e-mail and writing a report, may spend 50 percent more time on those tasks than if they work on them separately, completing one before starting the other.
Bucking the recent tradition at trade shows and technology conferences, the organizers decided not to provide wireless Internet access inside the conference.
The technology gives him a way to direct his excess energy. “It is a kind of Ritalin,” he said, referring to the drug commonly taken by people with attention deficit disorder.
