March 28th, 2005
The great seduction of the information age
Are your friends, family and colleagues telling you that you seem a bit restless, irritable and impulsive. Are you feeling overwhelmed and ineffective at work and at home? Are you numbed out? You might just be in a bad mood or you may be suffering from the "normal" version of ADD–ADT (Attention Deficit Trait)…or both or none of the above. In an interview with Alorie Gilbert, psychiatrist Dr. Edward Hallowell explains how an overload of e-mail, IM, cell phones and SMS could be driving you to ADT distraction…
What you pay attention to and for how long really makes a difference. If you’re just paying attention to trivial e-mails for the majority of your time, you’re wasting time and mental energy. It’s the great seduction of the information age. You can create the illusion of doing work and of being productive and creative when you’re not. You’re just treading water.
I admit to spending a lot of time reading and deleting trivial e-mails (spam and non-essential messages) from a variety of devices, and incessantly monitoring my e-mail, phone messages, RSS feeds and soon the baseball scores while sitting, walking and driving (as a passenger, of course). Interleaving work, family and play orchestrated by cell phones, PDAs (thumb typing), instant messaging and e-mail has become lifestyle. Dr. Hallowell’s advice: Allow yourself to stop and think. In other words, take a break from the action before you turn into an automaton…
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
