Digital distractions

Imagine you are sitting in your living room, looking at your friend's new photos on Facebook. Old friends start to send instant messages, and you have your email account open on a different window. Other links are also open, where you are browsing for information. Your television is also switched on and your cell phone rings, you pick it up, and while conversing, you try to read and send a text message. Looking obliquely from the corners of your eyes at the computer screen and someone enters your room and you finish your important family talks.
You must be thinking that this is exactly what you do. It doesn't take much imagination to conjure up this scenario, because in this era of technology, all of us go through this situation. But a growing body of research suggests that people are paying a mental price for their addiction to electronic gadgets.
Today's office workers face a lot of distractions. There are some with a Facebook obsession and others who check multiple e-mail accounts throughout the day. Inside office cubicles, workers can surf the web or text without worrying about whether anyone is looking over their shoulder.
It is also common for students to browse the internet with their cell phones in classrooms and while riding CNGs three-wheelers or rickshaws.
Digital distractions are everywhere.
We have so many ways of communicating that it's nearly impossible to simply answer a call, research something online or jot down a note without transitioning to other tasks.
PC World recently published an article saying the biggest digital distracters are calls and texts from our cell phones, emails, instant messages and social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter.
The article is great because so many of us don't realise how much time we drain on these forms of remote communication. They've become so deep-seated in our day to day lives that, for some of us, it's hard to imagine what the world would be like if we didn't know whether someone has changed his/her profile picture or not, or what your cousin and friends abroad are doing.
In 2009, David McCandless, a writer, conducted a survey, The Hierarchy of Digital Distraction, to spot the attention-grabbers. The iPhone and e-mail topped the list.
The hierarchy showed the entries at the top of the pyramid wins attention over the lower levels. Landline still has a place, but it is thoroughly trumped by anything coming in on your iPhone.
Facebook makes a surprisingly low showing, occupying only the lowest two levels of the hierarchy.
At the very top of the pyramid is the ultimate arbiter of them all: significant other closing the laptop lid on your fingers. At the very bottom? Any kind of actual work.
Nevertheless, we cannot controvert the fact that rapid advances and continuous innovation in technology have made the world a smaller place. The internet has made it possible to access information and communicate free of charge with a person sitting at the other end of the world at the click of a button.
It is amazing how technology has slowly entered our lives and become a part of our daily activities, even without our conscious knowledge.
When using technology, we should keep in mind the best and worthy use of it. Our goal is a harmonious balance between our daily productive lives and feeling like we are still clued in on the world around us being completely digitised.
Let us see whether the points below can help us come up with ways to take away the distraction part from the equation.
Schedule your surfing -- Give yourself a block of time to catch up on all your Facebook contacts, personal email, and news feeds.
Create a schedule that allows you to check in with your inbox, friend's list and social networking friends on a reasonable basis.
Limit yourself to one email account, Facebook page and instant message screen name.
If you are constantly refreshing a favourite site or pressing send/receive on your mail client, then you are not actively engaged -- you are probably avoiding your long-term priorities, which show you are wasting time and energy.
While you are trying to read something online, do not log on to social networking sites. Stick to that very topic, do not open more than four or six links on different topics or else, you will end up remembering nothing.
Settle on a schedule that works for you. We all have different priorities, commitments and levels of activity. Determine how much time you can comfortably spend “plugged in” to these digital distractions and work from there.
If possible, make more time for people, not people's emails, status updates or instant messages. When we engage with people face-to-face, we're able to dive a lot deeper into conversation, resulting in a pleasant experience for both parties.
Limit the number of times you check your phone while you are really working on something online.
A break from work should be a restorative action, chatting with a friend online about your project isn't a break. It's a distraction.
Distractions exist because we allow it. It's human nature to wonder what we're missing and we want to be the first to receive an update from a loved one or a piece of gossip from a well-placed source. E-mails, text messaging, push updates, and chat sessions may make us more productive than we've ever been -- in fact, they may be vital in helping us do our jobs, but for many, it may reduce the ability to focus on a single task for more than a few minutes at a time. Rather than multitasking, we are being distracted.