As reported in Discover Magazine this month
Does E-mail Make You Dumber? By Anne Casselman DISCOVER Vol. 26 No. 08 | August 2005 | Mind & Brain
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"A recent study for the company found that British workers’ IQ test scores drop temporarily by an average of 10 points when juggling phones, e-mails, and other electronic messages—more of an IQ drop than occurs after smoking marijuana or losing a night’s sleep. “This is a very real and widespread phenomenon,” said Glenn Wilson of the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, who conducted the tests on some 1,100 volunteers. Just how long it takes to recover is unclear."
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"The study found that modern-day communications have become addictive: Sixty-two percent of adults check work messages after office hours and on vacation. Half of those surveyed reply to an e-mail immediately or within 60 minutes. About 20 percent were “happy” to interrupt a business or social meeting to respond to a telephone or e-mail message. Yet 89 percent of those surveyed found it rude for colleagues to do so."
Social Impacts: Classic McLuhan Tetrad effect
email enhances: By itself, email enhances and promotes communications
email obsolesces: Face-to-face
email flips or reverses -at the extreme, multitasking leads to a paradox ( increased addiction and reduced communications,) email gridlock, overflowing and unread inboxes, , IQ drop after "switch signal"
email retreives: threat response
- "The human brain has evolved different modes for concentrating on a single thing versus jumping from one thing to another. “The reason we have these systems that quickly shift between each other is because what’s right for you now might not be right later,” Stickgold says. “There are basic brain-stem mechanisms that will cause you to shift and focus your attention on a change in stimulus.”
- Whether that change is a saber-toothed tiger popping out of the woods or a phone ringing suddenly, the consequences are the same. “The switch signal comes fast and powerfully. This system knows at a moment like this that what’s important is to shift your state quickly, and damn the cost. And the cost is that it takes several minutes to shift back,” says Stickgold. “That’s the way we’re wired.”
Status: Email is a Mature technology, but not smart .....yet. It will become more intelligent in the near future
What do you think of this research on email? Pros or Cons? Impacts?
Walter Derzko
Expert and Guest Speaker on the Smart Economy and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy
Interesting point, but ....
How, during this process did they actually quantify the measure of IQ? That is not something that is measurable or quantifiable by immediate observation.
I do agree that multi-tasking has an affect on ones ability to quickly jump between tasks. It has been shown that we do have an optimal number of simultaneous tasks we can perform, without a noticeable degradation in performance on any one task. To say however, that e-mail or multi-tasking lowers IQ is a bit of a stretch.
Like everything, e-mail is a tool. It can be a useful tool or it can be an obstacle. It depends how and what one uses it for, and responds to. To optimize the tool, we need to be able to recognize and prioritize incoming messages, without having to open them. Likewise, multi-tasking is the same.
In our culture we seem to take pride in doing as many things simultaneously as possible. Frankly, this is stupid! By saying no and concentrating on the core of what you are to do, more will be accomplished quicker. Otherwise, you are well on your way to burnout.
Posted by: George Fiala | September 16, 2005 at 02:36 PM