Posted on 04/22/2005 11:08:32 AM PDT by CHARLITE
Key points
• Texting makes you less intelligent, it is revealed
• Brains suffer from information overload, apparently
• Solution is: switch off!
Key quote
"The impairment only lasts for as long as the distraction. But you have to ask whether our current obsession with constant communication is causing long-term damage to concentration and mental ability." - Dr Glenn Wilson, psychologist at the University of London
Story in full
CONSTANT text messaging and e-mailing causes a reduction in mental capability equivalent to the loss of ten IQ points, according to research.
Tapping away on a mobile phone or computer keypad or checking messages on a handheld gadget temporarily reduces the performance of the brain, according to the study into the effects of "infomania".
The psychologist behind the research has concluded that obsessive use of phones and e-mail devices could impair mental capability even more than smoking cannabis - and suggested the modern culture of information could cause a permanent drop in intelligence.
"It is obvious that full concentration is impossible when we have one eye on e-mails or text messages," said Dr Glenn Wilson, a psychologist at the University of London who conducted the study of 1,000 adults. "But we found that mental performance, the capability of the brain, was also reduced. Workers cannot think as well when they are worrying about e-mail or voicemails. It effectively reduces their IQ.
"The impairment only lasts for as long as the distraction. But you have to ask whether our current obsession with constant communication is causing long-term damage to concentration and mental ability."
The surfeit of information is believed to cost firms millions of pounds a year in lost productivity. Millionaire telecoms mogul John Caudwell banned his staff from e-mailing last year, dubbing the practice the "cancer of modern business".
The owner of the Phones 4U chain told more than 2,500 employees to ditch cyberspace for face-to-face or phone communication - and claimed the ban had an "instant, dramatic and positive effect".
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is believed to receive up to four million e-mails a day, almost all of them spam, and has a dedicated department looking after the contents of his inbox.
Dr Wilson said the brain finds it hard to cope with juggling lots of tasks at once, reducing its effectiveness.
"It is similar to the effect on the mind of losing a night’s sleep, for instance, and more than twice the effect of the four-point drop in IQ caused by smoking cannabis."
The research, commissioned by technology firm Hewlett Packard, found men were most at risk from "infomania".
More than six in ten (62 per cent) of workers of both sexes admitted they were addicted to checking their e-mail and text messages so much they looked at work-related ones even when at home. Half said they always responded to an e-mail "immediately" or as soon as possible and one in five would interrupt a meeting to do so.
Dr Wilson said: "The most effective way to deal with the problem is to switch these things off. We have to learn to control technology rather than letting it control us."
Professor Cary Cooper, a stress expert, said: "Our desire to be in touch 24/7 is causing us to become overloaded with information. We have too many e-mails, too many text messages, too many voicemails and too many phone calls.
"Forty years ago, Harold Wilson predicted we would only have to work a 20-hour week because of the benefits of new technology. But as we create the technology that handles information faster, we have simply increased the volume of information to fill the gap.
"Before long we will need to employ information officers, in place of the traditional secretaries, to handle all this data."
What was that?
I'm sorry, got distracted answering the phone.
I'm not a luddite in any sense of the word, I love email, the internet and all this stuff. I talk on my cellphone a lot, business during the day, family at night, but I do agree with the following statement:
Dr Wilson said: "The most effective way to deal with the problem is to switch these things off. We have to learn to control technology rather than letting it control us."
--Sometimes I'll be in the middle of something and my cell will ring in another room/office/location. People look at me dumbfounded when I don't trip over myself and haul a$$ over to it to see who called. I never understood that. The email/cellphone/VM is around for MY convenience, not to make it easy for 99% of unimportant (relatively speaking) people to contact me at THEIR whim.
I really don't get this texting thing at all.
Why would anyone want to push/pick tiny little buttons?
Just make the call if the need to communicate is really there.
As silly as this guy's research sounds, I wonder if there is something to it.
My experience with young people & email is that they are totally incapable of answering the questions that I have posed to them in my email, which, of course, necessitates me sending them yet another email rephrasing the question(s) yet again!
The problem may be on my end as I tend to ask the questions in complete sentences.
I don't know if any of this technology impairs intelligence but it does impair written communication. As a sometimes tutor, I have really noticed that students who text message and IM a lot have very poor writing skills. Some of this is no doubt due to their inability to concentrate on reading material that runs to three paragraphs or more.
I have always had a policy that when someone enters my office, they have my attention. If the phone rings, well, that's what voice mail is for. But I have found that my visitors get visibly agitated realizing that I am not going to answer the phone. Pavlov was on to something...
Thats scotchman! But I am not Picty.
And this proves their point.
My IQ must be near rock bottom, with email, voice mail, pages, phone calls, and two-way radio coming at me all day. To top it off I've gone nearly bald. But I'm having a great time.
This article is a bunch of hoooey.
That was my reaction, but I posted it to see what others think. I don't see how any valid study, producing accurate statistical conclusions could possibly be made on this issue! This has to do with possibly half of the world's population, who have access to Ipods, computers, internet, cell phones and other electronic gadgetry.
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