'Infomania' Worse Than Marijuana
April
22, 2005
BBC News
Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ
more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research
has claimed. The study for computing firm Hewlett Packard warned of
a rise in "infomania", with people becoming addicted to email and
text messages.
Researchers
found 62% of people checked work messages at home or on holiday.
The firm
said new technology can help productivity, but users must learn to
switch computers and phones off.
Losing
sleep
The study,
carried out at the Institute of Psychiatry, found excessive use of
technology reduced workers' intelligence.
Those
distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in
their IQ - more than twice that found in studies of the impact of
smoking marijuana, said researchers.
More than
half of the 1,100 respondents said they always responded to an email
"immediately" or as soon as possible, with 21% admitting they would
interrupt a meeting to do so.
The
University of London psychologist who carried out the study, Dr
Glenn Wilson, told the Daily Mail that unchecked infomania could
reduce workers' mental sharpness.
Those who
are constantly breaking away from tasks to react to email or text
messages suffer similar effects on the mind as losing a night's
sleep, he said.
Stephanie Thompson's comments
I presume that
the "IQ drop" that the article refers to is an IQ effect -
i.e. A temporary drop rather than a permanent affliction. Or,
perhaps people who work smarter are, well, smarter.
Other research
shows that workers who focus on one thing at a time - leaving email
and phone messages to build up to be dealt with in bulk - get things
done much more quickly and efficiently. Sounds obvious? Yes, but
our current era of information overload has distracted us from the
obvious.
One problem with
the influx of rapid-fire 'information bites' is that your brain
needs a few moments to shift gear and deal with each item - to leave
one topic and to acquaint itself with another.
This happens every time
you go in or out of a topic; you need a minute or two to readjust
and continue where you left off. This uses up a surprising amount
of brain resources, or your personal hard disk space.
It is also
inherently stressful because it is, by most estimates, all but
impossible to respond to every email and piece of information
that comes your way in a complete and timely manner. It can't be
done, but diligent workers feel as though it ought to be.
Consequently they beat themselves up or try even harder, which just
serves to generate
more and more feedback from the world for them to attempt to respond
to.
In fact the
problem is not them, it's just the system. So designing a
better process for sorting, prioritising and responding to email is
a much better approach than simply expending more energy.
The rush-rush-rush mentality
that drives this is also symptomatic of a deeper
problem underlying the very unhealthy work cultures of countries
like the USA, UK, Australia and parts of North Asia. Many other
cultural groups - the majority of human kind, in fact - find this all
rather zany. They are right!
(Want a
cure? Try Insight Matters'
Stress Inoculation course.)
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