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Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price
SAN FRANCISCO When one of the most important e-mail messages of his life landed in his in-box a few years ago, Kord Campbell overlooked it.
Multimedia
Interactive Feature
A Multitasker's Perspective
Interactive Feature
Test Your Focus
Slide Show
Juggling the Screens
Warning Signs of Tech Overload
How do you know if you're too absorbed in technology? Times' columnist Tara Parker-Pope spoke with experts, who identified these seven signs.
Is It Too Late to Unplug From Your Digital Life?
What it takes to tune out and turn off your laptop and other devices.
Not just for a day or two, but 12 days. He finally saw it while sifting through old messages: a big company wanted to buy his Internet start-up.
I stood up from my desk and said, Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, Mr. Campbell said. Its kind of hard to miss an e-mail like that, but I did.
The message had slipped by him amid an electronic flood: two computer screens alive with e-mail, instant messages, online chats, a Web browser and the computer code he was writing. (View an interactive panorama of Mr. Campbell's workstation.)
While he managed to salvage the $1.3 million deal after apologizing to his suitor, Mr. Campbell continues to struggle with the effects of the deluge of data. Even after he unplugs, he craves the stimulation he gets from his electronic gadgets. He forgets things like dinner plans, and he has trouble focusing on his family.
His wife, Brenda, complains, It seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment.
This is your brain on computers.
Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.
These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement a dopamine squirt that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.
The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cellphone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people like Mr. Campbell, these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life.
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Multimedia
Interactive Feature A Multitasker's Perspective
Interactive Feature Test Your Focus
Slide Show Juggling the Screens
Warning Signs of Tech Overload
How do you know if you're too absorbed in technology? Times' columnist Tara Parker-Pope spoke with experts, who identified these seven signs.
Is It Too Late to Unplug From Your Digital Life?
What it takes to tune out and turn off your laptop and other devices.
Not just for a day or two, but 12 days. He finally saw it while sifting through old messages: a big company wanted to buy his Internet start-up.
I stood up from my desk and said, Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, Mr. Campbell said. Its kind of hard to miss an e-mail like that, but I did.
The message had slipped by him amid an electronic flood: two computer screens alive with e-mail, instant messages, online chats, a Web browser and the computer code he was writing. (View an interactive panorama of Mr. Campbell's workstation.)
While he managed to salvage the $1.3 million deal after apologizing to his suitor, Mr. Campbell continues to struggle with the effects of the deluge of data. Even after he unplugs, he craves the stimulation he gets from his electronic gadgets. He forgets things like dinner plans, and he has trouble focusing on his family.
His wife, Brenda, complains, It seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment.
This is your brain on computers.
Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.
These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement a dopamine squirt that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.
The resulting distractions can have deadly consequences, as when cellphone-wielding drivers and train engineers cause wrecks. And for millions of people like Mr. Campbell, these urges can inflict nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life.
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.
.
.
.
.
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