The new crack

Remember those TV ads that showed a frying egg, saying that this is your brain on drugs? Well, there’s a new drug out there: multitasking.

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.

While multitaskers may believe they are being more productive, the studies say otherwise. Heavy mulititaskers have difficulty focusing and are under more stress.

Technology has proceeded so rapidly that nearly everyone multitasks.  Can you ignore the alarm that a new email has come through your Outlook program? Just gotta stop and see what it is, right? That may interrupt you at your desk – and keep you from finishing that important project on time, because you can’t just read one email, right, especially if it has links in it.

In years past, a phone call would interrupt your work. With the proliferation of cell phones, those interruptions are far more frequent – like when you’re driving. Alarms go off for new text messages or posts on your Facebook page, or a new tweet. Is it any wonder that employers have banned cell phones from the workplace?

I have to admit: I found the article a bit scary. I’d like to keep my brain intact for a few more years, thank you very much. So I’ve already started to limit my own “connected” time., starting with turning off most  auditory notifications on my Blackberry. I’ve started limiting my Twitter checking to a couple of times a day, instead of every couple of hours.

There – I feel better already 🙂