Is technology distracting you or helping you?

Reading Gretchen Rubin’s terrific tips on how to get more reading done, it occurred to me it’s been months since I’ve finished a book cover to cover.  A stack of books to read stands waiting next to my side of the bed, but I find I’m less inclined to read before falling asleep, something I used to do all the time, what my husband still does every night.

The reason is easily traceable to a screen. Not the TV screen—we don’t have one in the bedroom and if anything, I’m watching less TV, not more. When you work online, and from home most of the time, it’s pretty easy to be connected via computer or BlackBerry all day. I can’t seem to walk by an open computer without sitting down, even if it’s not a traditional work time. Pretty Pavlovian.

The question of whether too much tech is helping us or distracting us—at work, on the road, at dinner with family and friends—everywhere, really, is the source of many studies and articles. The New York Timespulls together some of the latest findings in a really good read, which follows, in part, Kord Campbell, who has fully embraced the connected life. Sometimes to the chagrin of his wife and kids.  Campbell's wife says, “I would love for him to totally unplug, to be totally engaged,” though she adds she would not ask him to change. Still, the couple worries their son has gotten his first C’s because of his own tech habits, and his daughter jokes her dad prefers technology more than his family. Ouch.

Basically, the research does not definitively say all of the tech multitasking we are doing more and more is disastrous for our creativity and attention spans. Not yet. But some studies definitely point to concerns that too much multitasking, while spurring new learning and some good things neurologically, cuts down on our ability to focus for long periods of time. And, a study by the University of California at Irvine found that people interrupted by email reported more stress than others left alone to focus on work. (That sounds about right.) Couple that finding with another that links stress hormones with short-term memory loss, and you’ve got at least one substantive negative effect of too much tech living.

All I know is I do find it harder to relax and tune into a show I really want to watch with my kids or pick up a book I know I would have gladly lost myself in a few years ago after a long day at the computer and on the phone, texting and talking. When possible, and definitely when with other people, I turn off the buzzing and beeping noises my computer and phones make when I have messages because when they’re on, I am pulled to check, read, and scroll, even when I know it can’t be urgent.

What about you and yours? Is technology helping you more than it is distracting you?

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