Week 9 - One Final Debate

This week, for extra credit, we were asked to discuss how the internet has changed the way we find and use information, and the way we interact and communicate. These are interesting questions which invoke many interesting opinions and answers. Regardless of ones perspective about the particular way in which the internet (and technology) has impacted our daily lives, most everyone agrees that it has indeed made an impact. The assigned readings definitely presented interesting and thought-provoking arguments on the matter. The "Life Interrupted" article http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2004/1128/cover.html gave me tremendous insight into my experience in the workplace.

The following is a reprint of my response:

To me, David Levy “hits the nail on the head” in his article “Life Interrupted.” I believe his observation regarding technology (computers, the internet, communication devices, etc.) is profound. “All these tools have made our lives easier in many ways. But they're also stirring deep unease. Some are concerned that the need for speed is shrinking our attention spans, prompting our search for answers to take the mile-wide-but-inch-deep route and settling us into a rhythm of constant interruption in which deadlines are relentless and tasks are never quite finished.” I also agree that, “If all your information is tailored to what you want to know, you may miss that which you don't know you want to know, and should.” I think the internet has made so much information so easily, quickly, and readily available that people generally have become prone to swallowing it without thinking, questioning, chewing, or digesting what they are taking in.

In regards to communication, Levy points out that we all may be “so connected that we're actually disconnected.” If it weren’t bad enough that the call-waiting feature was added to land lines, then came dual phone lines and cell phones. The internet brought us email and instant messaging which then gave birth to the latest phenomena called texting. Levy raises the question, with all these things, “Has anyone had enough time to focus long enough to mull a question that requires a long, complicated answer?” I have observed that it is rare that I ever get someone’s full attention, whether it is in the marketplace or in personal conversation with a friend. Automated answering systems, hold, and interrupted conversations seem to be the norm these days. Electronic messaging has become so prevalent, who can get anything else done?

I believe he is absolutely right about how technology has increased stress and decreased productivity in the workplace. “Research has shown it to be consistently counterproductive, often foolish, unhealthy in the long run… Yet it is also expected, encouraged and basically essential.” If, in your work environment, you have never-ending deadlines, excessive workloads, and expectations that you must do-more-with-less, then you multitask. “We do it because it is expected, but also because we believe we can — sort of. The truth, says, David Meyer, a Michigan psychologist and cognitive scientist who has run several studies on the subject, is we don't and can't do it well. We're stressing people out with multitasking demands over time," says Grafman of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Maryland. And it will cause further decline in our health and performance,” he says, “if we keep it up.” It is precisely for these reasons that I recently resigned my position of almost twenty-three years as an Information System Manager. It was sucking the life right out of me. I decided it was time for a change.

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology and the internet. I can’t imagine life without it. But, I agree with Levy. We need to rethink how we are using it, and what we're allowing it to do to us.