Technology Overload

Does this sound at all familiar? I wake up in the morning, check the time on my clock radio and mentally begin the process of thinking about my schedule and the things that need to be done today. Grab a cup of coffee, already brewed and waiting. The TV is first to be switched on then the computer. Read any emails arriving over night and diminish Outlook to the system tray. Sit in front of my TV and watch a news program, while opening the morning paper, all the while listening for the tell-tale sounds of an incoming email. I’ve only been awake for less than half an hour and already I are triple tasking. Am I the only one in this situation?
It seems that no matter what we do, we are being bombarded with stimuli from multiple sources. Is this creating that feeling of nirvana that the purveyors of ‘gadgets’ claim will result from using their gizmos?
While waiting in the doctor’s office we answer a few emails and grab a minute to look up symp-toms from a medical website. While having a conversation with a friend over coffee we allow our cell phone to interrupt a couple of times. And I thought that technology was going to simplify life.
With all of this information bombarding us one would think that we are learning all the time. Researchers at the University of California found that rats that were given a novel situation to master and immediately given new tasks, did not remember the new experiences as well as those that were not given new tasks to learn. Does this equate to humans also? The researchers thought so.
In another study, researchers at the University of Michigan found that people learned significantly better after a walk in nature preserve than after a walk in a busy urban environment. This suggests that being bombarded with a lot of sti-muli leaves people fatigued.
On the first day of school one year I started off giving the students in grade 5 a simple timed ad-dition quiz, with quiet surroundings. Later in the morning, I gave them a parallel quiz with age appropriate music playing. As suspected, stu-dents did significantly better with quiet surround-ings. Can humans work as efficiently with dis-tractions?
No matter how we look at it, we need to fill every idle moment with entertainment. It is as though we have an itch that needs to be scratched. Technology allows us to scratch our itch.
Another interesting observation comes to light. There was a time when we would put an L.P. on the record player and really listen to it. In this day and age, statistics show that our attention span is much shorter. Even game makers have realized this. Many of the new games which are played on the Ipod or IPhone only take a couple of minutes to play. Many people become too ‘bored’ if they have to spend more time on a game. Maybe this is why most songs are between 2 and 3 minutes long.
I am not suggesting that we all become neo luddites and shun all technology. When one con-siders the advances in medical technology and treatment, how can we but endorse and encour-age continued advances. Maybe we need to con-sider how all forms of technology affect us and what pitfalls we should be looking for.
Why not try this. When you decide it is time for exercise, instead of jumping on the treadmill, turning the TV on and the volume up so it can be easily heard over the treadmill, try something different. Go to a local nature trail for a walk. Most communities have at least one. You can walk as fast as you think best. Work up a sweat. Lastly, relax your mind. It is far better for your well being to go home physically tired than to be physically tired and mentally fatigued.
Many people report a feeling of utter fatigue at the end of a day particularly if there has been a lot of electronic input. We are not giving the brain a chance to calm down and relax after processing all of the stimuli that is thrown at it. If you really think about this, the really important stuff that the brain should be processing out of your day, is probably less than half of what it is forced to process. Technology is good, but it can really over power our senses and our brains.
One way to get a proper handle on technology is to use one techno item at a time. When com-puting, don’t listen to music, avoid using the tel-ephone – you do know that most phones have voice mail, don’t you?
Social networking can be a marvelous thing, if it is augmented with reaching out and really touching someone. Make time to talk to people. Get out and join clubs, play bridge, etc. and leave your iPod and cell phone home.
My last word of advice would be to play Simon and Garfunkel’s 59th Street Bridge Song, (Feeling Groovy), really listening to it. Maybe we will give our brains a chance to ‘chill out’ as they say in the new vernacular. “Slow down – you move to fast – you got to make the morning last …..”