E-Mail and the IQ
Grumpy folks like me are always complaining about how the kids aren’t learning anything in school these days. That may or may not be true, but it turns out there’s another culprit: Blackberries.
According to a recent study, some psychologists have found that sending text messages results in a temporary decline in IQ of up to 10 points. This is on par with the effects of sleep deprivation, and much worse than using marijuana. The researchers labelled the effect “infomania”.
Symptoms of infomania include lost productivity, an inability to concentrate, and rudeness in the workplace. As far as I know there is no cure, but apparently the symptoms can be managed by checking your e-mail less often and turning your Blackberry off during meetings. Which is easier said than done, since the study showed that although 90% of Britons think answering e-mails during a meeting is extremely rude, one third of them also believe that it is acceptable to do so, and one fifth say they do it themselves.
You’ve been taken for a ride by the media overhyping, sensationalizing, and twisting work that had absolutely nothing to do with the claims advanced in the article.
See the discussion here, including an impassioned plea from the originally referenced researcher asking people to stop repeating this utter nonsense :
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002493.html
I know it’s tempting to believe anything you read, but really, an ounce of critical thinking would have cast a lot of doubt on this without even using Google.
Thanks for the link. The site seems to be down, but hopefully I can access it later.
I intended my tone to be a little bit tongue-in-cheek. I don’t actually believe that getting a lot of e-mail makes you “stupider”, although I don’t find it hard to believe that our use of this technology is affecting the way we think.
However, I think there is consensus on two things the article pointed out:
1. “Infomania” or information overload is hindering our quest for greater productivity in the workplace, despite the obvious benefits it brings.
2. Everyone thinks it’s rude to answer e-mails during a meeting, and yet many people do it anyways.
Sorry for missing your intended tone, Evan.
“Infomania” or information overload is hindering our quest for greater productivity in the workplace, despite the obvious benefits it brings.
I suppose this is true – time and work management skills haven’t yet widely adapted to the ubiquity of e-mail (and the coming ubiquity of IM technology). It’s odd that e-mail should make that easier than the telephone did – the telephone is always a distracting intrusion (or it was before voicemail let us all decide/prioritize the timing of our response). E-mail you can respond to at your leisure – if you let it.
One great way to deal with this, I find, is to turn notification on your mobile off, unless you are expecting something timely. I check my Blackberry about 80% less than I once did.
2. Everyone thinks it’s rude to answer e-mails during a meeting, and yet many people do it anyways.
I wouldn’t ever do it in a client meeting, but I have always thought it’s generally understood that in the innumerable time-wasting, life-force-sapping non-billable and non-client-centred meetings that proliferate the working hours of a busy lawyer (I’m thinking of a large firm like mine) sometimes you need to take 30 seconds to respond to client needs when you know something is coming. My other option, I suppose is to excuse myself and respond outside – maybe I should do that instead?
Now that’s relatively rare. Generally, at least in my firm, people don’t check their mobiles during meetings unless there’s a lull or wait of some kind – then 15 people whip out their Blackberries simultaneously!