Researchers: Email hurts IQ more than pot

[susnfx]

Very interesting study about the effects of constant arrival and checking of messages via email, text, etc.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04 ... index.html

One statement from the article:
"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," Wilson said. "We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness."

I read a book several years ago by Miss Manners, of all people, that really opened my eyes to the intrusion phones, computers, etc. are into our lives. The telephone, when first invented and installed in private homes, was considered a real interruption and intrusion into the sanctity of the home. Over the years we've come up with more technology to help us hide from it - caller ID, answering machines, etc. - but more and more people allow their lives to be run by these ringing, singing, "you've got mail" electronic devices.

Interesting study.

Susan

[mukade]

It always annoys me when somebody I am talking to stops a conversation to answer a mobile phone.

I think the phone should wait.

Mukade

[susnfx]

My pet peeve: call waiting. A person calls and interrupts whatever I'm doing, then puts me on hold while they take another call. There've been times I've hung up on them. And the phone company keeps trying to sell me on call waiting - like it's a good thing!

I was just thinking of a relative of mine. She calls long distance to ask if I got the email she sent an hour before. No, she's not elderly. I don't know why she does it.

In my opinion, cell phones should be banned in schools - not only to lessen cheating, but precisely because of what this study showed.

Susan

[Lambchop]

Susan, thank you so much for posting this!

I was sitting at work this past week worrying about my mental status. It seems that I can't remember what I'm doing while I'm doing it.

We have one computer software thing that contains internal email along with other stuff. The email has the ability to interrupt what you are doing. So, you'll be working along with something, an email arrives, and the software will start interrupting with "you have new email" messages. If it's a priority message, it'll actually throw you out of what you are doing--really annoying if you've been doing something complicated and time-consuming--to force you to answer it.

Then, we have regular internet email. We're supposed to leave that running all the time so that we get notified of messages. I get a new message about once every 5 minutes. Most of them don't pertain to me, so I can delete them, but I still have to look at them to see what they're about. We also have a few people who believe that if you send a meeting announcement or something too early, everyone will forget, so they wait until five minutes before. So, if you don't read the emails right away, you miss the meeting or whatever it is. Then they complain about you. "She never comes to meetings. We had questions and she wasn't there to answer them. What kind of help is THAT?"

And then there is the telephone. With the infernal voice mail that gives you messages two days after they were recorded.

And then there is the constant asking of questions in the office. Do you know what? Have you seen the? What would you do with? None of these are short answers, either. You have to research something or provide an answer the length of a legal brief.

Or, my favorite, "I don't know how to do this. You know, so do it for me. No, I don't want you to show me how. I'll never remember."

And the stream of people who appear in person because they can't risk a delaying until you can answer your email.

I'll start something, only to be interrupted almost continuously. The interruption gets interrupted. One day last week, I felt like my tasks were one of those nesting Russian dolls. I had the thing I started out with in the inside, surrounded by an interruption, surrounded by another interruption, and another, and another.

I've taken to leaving things on my desk in piles with sticky notes on the top telling me what they are. Because I can't remember. There's a big stack of books and papers on one side, but I don't know what for. Then, right under my left arm, is a bunch of papers and references, with another layer (another question) on top of that (with a pencil stuck in so I know which layer is what), and another layer on top of that, and a big reference book on top of that. And then the stack got too high, so I started another set of layers over on the right.

Like geological sedimentary layers.

And then I can't remember what I started out doing.

It's a relief to know it's not just me.

[susnfx]

Note to self: Don't apply for whatever job it is Peggy has.

You have my deepest sympathy.

[Lambchop]

Note to self: Don't apply for whatever job it is Peggy has.

You have my deepest sympathy.

Thanks. That's most everyone's opinion, so you're not alone. "Nope. Don't want THAT job. You couldn't PAY me to do it."

Last week, the worst of it was that someone actually complained I'd given them an answer that was too long. Too much information. They didn't want to know all that!

"I wanted an answer, not a legal brief. Just tell me what to do; don't tell me why. I don't need to know why."

"You need to know why or you won't be able to do it next time."

"I'll just ask you next time."

:roll:

[Nanohedron]

Researchers: Email hurts IQ more than pot

I am so totally screwed.

[GaryKelly]

My colleagues in the cube-farm all sit within 20 feet of me. One of 'em sits 6 feet away. They email me.

Corporations.

[MarkB]

And it's only going to get worse! I work at a reference desk in a library and internal e-mail notice is always cluttering my screen when I am attempting to help a person. And some of that infernal mail is nothing but employee jokes that they rout to everybody, thinking that you have nothing better to do.

MarkB

[Darwin]

"We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness."

That's just e-mail messages, right? I mean, posts on C&F don't count, right? Right?

[scottielvr]

"We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness."

That's just e-mail messages, right? I mean, posts on C&F don't count, right? Right?

Ha. I'm not a bit worried: At 0.41 posts per day,my mind is tarp as a shack.

[dubhlinn]

"We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness."

That's just e-mail messages, right? I mean, posts on C&F don't count, right? Right?

Ha. I'm not a bit worried: At 0.41 posts per day,my mind is tarp as a shack.

Ha,Ha................
Pardon me,but that is so funny...

Well, It is to me..

Still laughing...

Slan,
D.

[Walden]

I work at a reference desk in a library

Aha!

[MarkB]

AHA WHAT Walden!

MorkB

[Jack]

Technology sometimes takes us backwards.

Even many Amish families now have telephones. They're not in the house, though. They're kept in booths far away from the house, and only used for business (such as ordering seed catalogs or animal feed).