subject: The Effects of Digital Overload [print this page] Bookmarks and Internet Overload Bookmarks and Internet Overload
How Fast Data is Pouring into the Net
How did I know that there's really Internet information overload? By vanished bookmarks (each containing about 30 pages, programs, apps, and addresses). I was a bit stunned when I realized that bookmarking services reveal just how fast Internet data is being produced.
When I lost my first bookmark app, I thought it would be a painful task to track all my important sitelinks. You see, I already lost about 3 bookmarks apps for various reasons. And how much did I suffer for that? Almost did not. Because after more than a month after I lost each bookmarks, I noticed that there are already better replacements or alternatives to almost all that I lost.
Now Xmarks, which I think is the best bookmarking app, is shutting down next January. But Xmarks is still currently adding nearly 3,000 new accounts per day with about 2 million users -proof of their excellent service. So why then is it planning to end service? The usual reason why many other excellent services shut down: Other sites offering same service for free. In Xmarks case, it were Google, Opera, and Mozilla that did it which depleted Xmarks' funds.
Excellent services dying out on the Net has become routine because of similar free services pouring in. Now you can imagine how fast data is pouring into the Net.
The Effects of Digital Overload
A New York Times report say that the average computer user checks 40 websites a day and can switch programs 36 times an hour. The Times technology journalist Matt Richtel accompanied several scientists, all of whom are studying the brain, on a week-long retreat to a remote corner of Utah. But there were rules of the vacation: No cell phones, no Internet access and no technological distractions.
The Three-day Effect
The scientists noticed something significant happening on the third day they couldn't use their hand-held devices, computers and mobile phones. "You start to feel more relaxed. Maybe you sleep a little better. Maybe you don't reach for your phone pinging in your pocket," Richtel says. "Maybe you wait a little longer before answering a question. Maybe you don't feel in a rush to do anything your sense of urgency fades." Richtel terms it the "three-day effect." The scientists are now asking: How much is too much, when it comes to processing technology? Richtel's answer: 'Just as food nourishes us and we need it for life, so too in the 21st century and the modern age we need technology. You cannot survive without the communication tools; the productivity tools are essential.'
Dr. Kimberly Young, a professor at St. Bonaventure University in New York compares processing technology with eating too. 'The problem is similar to an eating disorder, ' she says . 'Technology, like food, is an essential part of daily life, and those suffering from disordered on-line behavior cannot give it up entirely and instead have to learn moderation and controlled use.'
Now here's what I think is the simplest illustration on how our dependency on technology starts: "When you check your information, when you get a buzz in your pocket, when you get a ring you get what they call a dopamine squirt. You get a little rush of adrenaline," Richtel says. "Well, guess what happens in its absence? You feel bored. You're conditioned by a neurological response: 'Check me check me check me check me.' " (Richtel received the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for a series in The New York Times on driving while multitasking. -NPR)
The title of an article by Times' columnist Tara Parker-Pope is An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness -and that's just what I notice I'm beginning to acquire: Impatience and Forgetfulness. I spend almost all my time on computer since I'm a writer too.
Here are funny but serious questions TP Pope asks: 'Has high-speed Internet made you impatient with slow-speed children? Do you sometimes think about reaching for the fast-forward button, only to realize that life does not come with a remote control? '
And here is her scary reply:
'If you answered yes to any of those questions, exposure to technology may be slowly reshaping your personality. Some experts believe excessive use of the Internet, cellphones and other technologies can cause us to become more impatient, impulsive, forgetful and even more narcissistic.' The words 'slowly reshaping (suggests deception), impatient, impulsive, forgetful and even more narcissistic' just scares me. "We're paying a price in terms of our cognitive life because of this virtual lifestyle." says Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at Stanford.
Researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia subjected 173 college students to tests measuring risk for problematic Internet and gambling behaviors. The result: 10 percent of the students posted scores high enough to put them in the at-risk category for Internet "addiction." Another student from the University of Maryland said, "Texting and I.M.'ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort," wrote one student. "When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable."
If you want self-assessment tests to determine if technology has enslaved you, NetAddiction.com offers those .
