Yesterday's news that technology companies are designing tools to limit digital disruptions was welcome. And deliciously ironic, because the reason we have so many disruptions is because of advancements in technology...combined with a lack of focus. It's too easy simply to blame the tools.
I'm just as guilty as anyone else of letting inconsequential emails distract attention from more pressing concerns. It's always easier to take care of the little things rather than concentrate on the big things (this is true of human relationships too, not just in how we handle the digital glut in which we find ourselves.)
According to the research firm Basex, it can take a long time to re-focus after you've become distracted. Basex claims that there is some $650 billion of lost economic productivity
due to digital distraction, but this seems to me like a cockamamie
number. Whatever the consequences, it does seem obvious that too many distractions can be counterproductive.
People need to set their own boundaries, and be mindful of what they are doing. One rudimentary tool mentioned in the article is a Gmail "Email Addict" feature that forces you to take a 15 minute break if you feel you checking email too often (with an escape valve, of course). Whatever works, I say.
A few days ago Scott blogged about Nicholas Carr's fascinating article in the most recent Atlantic, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Carr notes that sustained reading--curled up on the chair, with no distractions--is much harder for him than it was just 5 years ago. I've sensed a similar shift in my own reading. I plow through a lot of books, but often feel like I am skimming across the page like a pebble over the water. With so many other stimuli about, it can be hard to sink in deeply.
But the pebble always sinks eventually. This problem is solvable, and each of us needs to find our own balance in how we use old-line and digital age media. For example this afternoon I'm going to a coffee shop in Berkeley that has free wi-fi. That doesn't matter to me, because I'm not bringing my laptop, but will bring a book.
In addition to the "old/new" balance, we each have to decide which new tools to embrace and which to let others explore. I love email, instant messaging, Facebook, and blogging. But so far I've resisted using Twitter, even though Rothman set up the very cool group tweet during MLA a few weeks ago. And even though I love instant messaging I've hesitated to join the MedLibs Meebo group chat, another cool thing that Rothman set up recently. Instant messaging is my way to keep in touch with Helen and other family members, and to get work done at UCSF. I have no doubt that the group chat would lead to fascinating discussions, but at this moment I've maxed out my new tools brain space.
Librarians in toto should be up on every single new technology that comes along. Every single one. But this doesn't mean that every individual librarian needs to embrace every single tool. Instead the normal curve of the diffusion of innovation will assert itself--I'm certainly not on the leading edge, but hopefully not a laggard either. Then again, even the laggards can make products better because of their great skepticism.
We must remember that all of our digital connectors--even e-mail--are not that old. It's not like food and shelter, challenges humanity have faced for millennia. So this growing pain period, in which most of us get too easily distracted, seem both normal and inevitable. Eventually this will all sort itself out, and people will find the right balance between being productive and being too distracted. I have faith.
By the time this happens maybe I'll finally be on Twitter; if so I'll send around a tweet to all my friends.
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