It is widely accepted that we’re living our lives online more and more (my previous post about web communities discusses this), from banking to information retrieval to social networking. I have a daily roster of websites and e-mail addresses I absolutely must check to feel that I am up-to-date in my life. My three e-mail addresses make three different sounds to alert me of any incoming mail, which I check promptly. And my cellphone makes a pleasing little bling-bling sound with every incoming text message, the tone filling me with joyful anticipation (Oooo! Who could this be?!) every time it goes off.In this month’s The Walrus magazine, John Lorinc writes an article about how all the technological distractions in our society are actually making it difficult for our brains to function effectively.
To illustrate the main idea of the article: as I (try to) focus on writing this blog post, I have already had two email alerts and one phone call. For the two links above, I navigated away from my Word document and onto the internet to search for the links. Lorinc asserts that these interruptions, though minor, actually have a complex process in our brains:
“When multi-tasking, the brain’s executive processor performs a two-stage operation: the first is ‘goal shifting’ (e.g., shifting from editing a text file to checking e-mail), and the second is ‘rule activation’ (turning off the learned rules for editing on a word processing program and turning on the rules for managing the email program that’s being used).”
These shifts of focus in our brains take a significant amount of time, and when added up over weeks and months, can affect productivity. Joshua Rubinstein, a psychologist interviewed for the article, notes: “Multi-tasking may seem more efficient on the surface, but may actually take more time in the end.”
So slow and steady does win the race, it would seem. Then how do we slow down and ignore distractions in an interruption-dense, fast-paced world?
I think learning to ignore alerts, be they ringing phones or e-mail beeps, until a more appropriate time is one way. The phonecall I ignored while writing this blog post came just as I was in the middle of a thought and I knew if I stopped to answer, I’d lose it. (I did, however, jump up to check the call display, to see who it was.) I have really only realized recently that one doesn’t have to answer a ringing phone (especially if one is in the middle of a particularly intriguing plot point while viewing Lost).
I am also learning that I live a life where very few emails are so pressing and time-sensitive that I need to read and respond to them immediately (unless maybe if it’s someone offering Toronto FC v. LA Galaxy tickets). In fact, I’ve become so good at not RSVPing to invitations over email, that I’ve acquired a bit of a reputation among some of my friends.
And on MSN Messenger, an instant chat programme which allows you to type instant messages back and forth with your contacts online, I have permanently set my status to “offline”. I found if I was listed as “online” I would get several people messaging me with non-essential chat – yet another interruption when working at my computer. (Both the email and Messenger examples lead on to the question of online etiquette – how do you politely decline a Messenger conversation and how long is it appropriate to take to reply to an email?)The ability to prioritize tasks is a hallmark of a good multi-tasker. So perhaps now the multi-tasker needs to slightly hone that skill to prioritizing their attention to communication input – do I really need to read that email right now? Is that text message going to be vital to my task at hand?
And as for me and my mild internet addiction, maybe sometimes I will sleep my computer, switch off my cellphone and float back to those pre-2003 halcyon days when the only alerts I would hear would be the slap of the newspaper at my doorstep or a soft knock on my door.
No comments:
Post a Comment