If anything, they're all stuck in neutral and need a rolling push to get going, and God willing, pop the clutch.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 08/26/2010 1:16:27 PM PDT by neverdem
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s 1 p.m. on a Thursday and Dianne Bates, 40, juggles three screens. She listens to a few songs on her iPod, then taps out a quick e-mail on her iPhone and turns her attention to the high-definition television.
Just another day at the gym.
As Ms. Bates multitasks, she is also churning her legs in fast loops on an elliptical machine in a downtown fitness center. She is in good company. In gyms and elsewhere, people use phones and other electronic devices to get work done — and as a reliable antidote to boredom.
Cellphones, which in the last few years have become full-fledged computers with high-speed Internet connections, let people relieve the tedium of exercising, the grocery store line, stoplights or lulls in the dinner conversation.
The technology makes the tiniest windows of time entertaining, and potentially productive. But scientists point to an unanticipated side effect: when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas.
Ms. Bates, for example, might be clearer-headed if she went for a run outside, away from her devices, research suggests.
At the University of California, San Francisco, scientists have found that when rats have a new experience, like exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains show new patterns of activity. But only when the rats take a break from their exploration do they process those patterns in a way that seems to create a persistent memory of the experience.
The researchers suspect that the findings also apply to how humans learn.
“Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Anybody out there who does a lot of cardio please weigh in.
Exercise meditation?
When at a store, it usually appears I’m the only customer without a cellphone attached to my ear.
“....reliable antidote to boredom”
If you are a woman at the gym, why not talk to a good looking guy..like me? :)
Duh!! Every kindergarten class has at lease one recess.
I can relate to this article when it comes to rest/sleep. If I leave my smart-phone right next to the bed, I have a tough time staying asleep. It seems that in my dream state, my brain comes up with reasons to want to reach over and check the web or mail, even though when I wake up I personally couldn’t care less and just want to go back to sleep.
If I leave it in the other room, I sleep much more soundly. This is not scientific, of course, and sounds utterly crazy, but it does seem that my brain does not go into hibernate the way it should based on the availability of the phone.
Stoplights? How empty is your bloody head that you get bored waiting for a light to change?
How about the old technology of reading books, magazines, and newspapers (and even the cereal boxes while eating breakfast)?
I’m always reading something — whether digital or hardcopy — unless I’m walking or driving or doing something where I can’t physically read.
But then I’m thinking about politics and science and engineering.
I’m always reading or thinking or both unless I’m sleeping.
It seems that most people don’t care for their own company.
I skimmed the article while parking the car and entering the gym and getting on the treadmill.
No idea what he’s talking about.
If you turn off your digital thingies, you start having strange thoughts in your head.
Gotta go, someone’s twitting me about coming down to the gym.
Unless you're watching Digital Television...
Isn’t that the truth! God forbid any gap in external stimulation occurs.
If anything, they're all stuck in neutral and need a rolling push to get going, and God willing, pop the clutch.
ROFL
All of the things you mentioned are part of my browsing habits. ;)
Forget the gym. Some of my co-workers talk on their cell phones while they’re in the bathroom!
If I hear somebody on their cell phone while I'm doing my business in the bathroom, I always try to rip the loudest possible fart I can.
You are a dogg, she should talk to me :)
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