British workers are info-maniacs

[Doctor Q]

link (see last section, labeled "UP IN SMOKE")

According to researchers at the University of London Institute of Psychiatry, there's a serious "info-mania" problem among British workers that's affecting their mental capacity. Obsessively checking E-mail and text messages during meetings, in the evenings, and on weekends results in mental fatigue that affects IQ scores by as much as 10 points.

I'm certainly glad this applies only to the British!

 

[killuminati]

I'm certainly glad this applies only to the British!

Yea, I wonder why it is just the British and not people in general. I'm sure it happens just as much here in North America.

 

[Applespider]

Our head office has recently rolled out Blackberry units to almost anyone who might leave their desk and it's nuts. You sit in meetings only for them to receive a non-urgent message which interrupts the meeting just enough for them to check that it's non-urgent. Half of them don't know how to work them properly and can't see the point. Absolutely nuts - for the vast majority of people who aren't working on the road or who have to make major decisions 'out-of-hours', they are total overkill.

Knowing that there's something there to check takes more time and wrecks concentration more than having a routine of checking every x hours. I added the BBC news site briefly to my RSS feeds but had to take it off - I check that site every few hours in any case but with RSS on, it would tell me there was something new every 10 minutes at which point I felt obliged to check it out in case I was missing something!

 

[wdlove]

So far they just haven't released any research data here in the United States. I only check my messages once a day. The only problem would be if this applies to other activities.

 

[mactastic]

And how does THIS study compare to people who smoke pot?

 

[hob]

And how does THIS study compare to people who smoke pot?

Well with the amount of people I know ( ) doing it, watch out world - the next generation of brits are going to be... schizophrenic