In this feature, Matt Richtel takes a close look at how multi-tasking with computers is affecting our lives — and examines if technology is re-wiring our brains. Here’s an excerpt:
Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.
These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.
The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cellphone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people like Mr. Campbell, these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life.
While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress.
And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers.
Read the rest of “Attached to Technology and Paying the Price “
Does this feature have any relevance for you or the people you know? In what ways does it ring true–or not?
I think the feature is relevant to myself and most Americans today. Multi-tasking has become a habit of every day life. I find myself being unable to focus on only one thing, because I’m usually always doing other things at the same time. For example, I used to have the TV on when I would do my homework. When I finally turned the TV off to do homework, I realized it took me half the time to get it done even if I never really watched it in the first place when it was on. I’ve also realized in conversations with people, face to face, I struggle to communicate with them properly while I’m having a side conversation through texting on my phone. I was unaware before reading this feature that the lack of focus continues even after you stop multi-tasking. I’m not a very good multi-tasker, but I continue to do it every day. I definitely noticed that without multi-tasking the rate at which boredom occurs is much higher then at times when multi-tasking is occurring, which the feature also mentions.
I find this topic extremely interesting because I am from “the internet generation”, where cell phones, computers and internet quickly took over the analog lifestyle. I agree with Nikkole in the fact that productivity looses its standards of quality, and rises in quantity as a result of multitasking. My brain tends to be distracted easily, even when I am not deliberately trying to multitask. I find myself paying attention to several different things and conversations I over hear at once. Therefor, I have been trying for manny years to slow down my thoughts. And when I need to read or write a letter or essay I need to be in total quiet. I am not a huge computer user (technology in general actually) but this article demonstrates the exact questions and worries I have witnessed in friends, family, and even my self. Our life is revolving around multitasking in a technological age.
I think it’s interesting to look at the effects of technology on our social interactions. I have purposefully not become an iphone user strictly for the reason that I’ve seen that type of technology drastically change people. My brother, for example, is entirely sucked into his phone. Instead of participating in normal dinner time conversation, he buries himself in his phone and talks to his girlfriend through texting or facebook; even when she is sitting at the same table. I think technology allows avenues for people to create social interactions without having to go through the face to face contact – in my opinion the most important part
It’s really interesting that social interaction has been accelerating ever since the household computer or personal cell-phone was created. I myself can hardly have a moment I am not either listening to music, watching t.v., or surfing the web during my free time. Culture is continually evolving to live in a technological environment and take for granted everyday tasks which maybe 15 years ago wasn’t possible. My brain really is dependent on the idea that I can just look up the definition online, or search anything that pops into my head. Without technology I just wouldn’t know where to look.
I found this feature to be relevant to me. I am a heavy multi-tasker. I try not to be and I have been isolating myself from distractions, but whenever I get into something I think of something else that has to be done. By reading this feature, I have realized that my lack of focus is probably related to my multi-tasking. Whenever I should be focusing on one thing, my mind begins to wander back to something else.
Here is a feature that, at the least, introduces a few readers to an ongoing scientific dialogue that seems far from any general consensus on its subject matter. The article and the studies it presents are certainly relevant, albeit inconclusive.
It’s no secret that information is more instantly accessible than ever before. Today’s media culture is geared towards the notion that everyone wants everything and they want it now. There’s a veritable battlefield of social networks, portable devices, and apps that compete for our precious time and attention.
I often find myself distracted by catchy news article headlines, and sidebars with links to other news articles, to the point where I have to force myself to stop clicking unrelated links, take a breath, and focus on something else for awhile. Maybe go outside.
But does the constant flood of information overload really hinder our ability to commit to a singular focus, to filter out the irrelevant from the important, as the feature suggests? I’m still skeptical. Surely, a few incoming emails aren’t going to prevent you from writing that essential business plan or playing catch with your kids, right?
Out of curiosity, I decided to take the linked focus test that the article provides. I opened the test in one of four active tabs on my Firefox browser, the others devoted to email, an online class, and tracking the progress of my multiple fantasy football teams. I imagine that this alone might qualify me as a “multi-tasker.”
Interestingly, I managed to score a perfect result. Am I the exception to the rule? Did I beat the geniuses of Stanford at their own game? Or maybe, despite the constant barrage of distractions, most people really are able to switch from multi-tasking to solid focus and back again. Like the feature explains, as humans, our brains are constantly adapting and learning new skills.
It’s true that this generation faces unique and exciting challenges that previous ones did not have to contend with. Information overload, four hundred television channels, the internet, texting and facebook. But let’s not press the panic button yet. Remember, some issues presented therein, such as kids’ lack of focus in school, is not exactly a new problem. People have been blaming that one on everything from video games to bad parenting to ADD and music influences since the days before Elvis Presley epitomized rock and roll.