Why are you distracted in the Information Age?

(2005.04.01) from: ZDNET

CNET technology news network March 31 International report this is probably the greatest irony of the information age.

From email, instant messaging (IM), mobile phone, and voice mail to BlackBerry, information has been bombarded from all directions, making you more and more savvy? Wrong, experts said, the spread of information may actually make you slower.

The study's attention to deficiency (ADD), says Edward Hallowell, a psychiatric physician who has been studying for more than a decade, he has discovered a symptom related to attention deficit trait; ADT ), this disease is spreading rapidly in the business world. Unlike pay attention to deficiency, pay attention to lack of characteristics is not born, but the product of the modern workplace. In a modern working environment, we use computers, telephones, and other high-tech devices to chat continuously, gradually reducing our mental power.

No one can really process more tasks, but it only shortens the time for doing something. Hallowell, who once taught at Harvard Medical School, recently interviewed CNET News.com to pay attention to lack of characteristics and when it is a good time to go offline, call or take a break.

Q: What is lack of attention (ADT )?

Hallowell A: It is similar to paying attention to deficiency, but ADT is caused by busy modern life. You are so busy taking into account a lot of input and output that you become increasingly distracted, angry, impulsive, restless, and over time will become unable to fully tap into your potential. In other words, because you are doing too many things or trying to do too many things, the efficiency will be greatly discounted, just as if you throw one more ball to catch up when performing a juggling.

Q: What are the symptoms?

A: People will find that their work has not fully realized their potential. They know that productivity is more than that, but the actual output is not ideal. When they answer questions, they began to become superficial and hasty. They began to get exhausted and lack new ideas. They found that their work time was getting longer and longer, their sleep time was getting shorter, and their exercise was getting slower, the number of times of meeting with friends is reduced. In general, it takes more time to produce less data.

Q: When did you notice the difference between ADT and ADD?

A: Many people asked me to check "ADD", but I noticed that some people do not actually have the "ADD" status, because the symptoms completely disappear as long as they are on vacation or moved to a relaxed environment. But the real ADD, no matter where you are, the symptoms will not disappear. I understood that these symptoms were the product of the workplace and began to emerge when they were working. The crux is that work leads to excessive load.

Q: Are people not always distracted at work? Is this really a new problem?

A: It's new, because we never used to overload our brain system. We used to be physically overloaded. However, it has never been so often used to overload mental power.

Q: What will this problem affect people?

A: you cannot come up with the ideas you want to come up. You cannot get the sense of accomplishment derived from creative activities. Your life level is more superficial than before.

Q: Can it be imagined that it will also have an impact on enterprise organizations?

A: Yes. If an enterprise spreads the ADT within an organization, it will sacrifice the most valuable assets, namely the creativity of the employee's mind. It is not difficult to solve the problem. You only need to prescribe the right medicine, restrict it, and save some time to think. Investment guru Warren Buffett is used to sitting in a small office and spending a lot of time focusing only on Shen si. We did not give ourselves the opportunity to settle our thoughts.

Q: You said the symptoms are spreading rapidly. What are the percentage of office workers infected with ADT?

A: I only rely on speculation, because no formal opinion survey has been conducted. But I did an informal survey at the Forum. If you are talking about office workers who work as managers and supervisors in an enterprise, rather than grass-roots employees who work at Burger King or elsewhere, I think the ratio can be up to 30%, 35%, or 40%.

Q: You said that technologies in the form of email, voice mail, and instant messaging are encouraging this phenomenon. Isn't it ironic that the age of information explosion has slowed down many of us?

A: Yes. Technology is a good news and a major driving force for our growth and progress. But if we do not exercise caution, we may make ourselves exhausted. Town-day reply email, voice mail; will be halfway through the mobile phone interrupted; stay up late until very late, because the Internet is lingering. We must regain our control right, so don't let technology take our lead. We must leave some time to think. Otherwise, we will become superficial if we cannot fully use our mental power for thinking, analysis, analysis, and creation.