Constant e-mail harms intellect, report says

[Brotha]

I hope this isn't true, for a lot of your sakes! Or we might not see several people posting from work anymore

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp ... ss/3149157

By KATHRINE JEBSEN MOORE
Bloomberg News

Constant e-mailing and text messaging reduces mental ability by 10 IQ points, a more severe effect than smoking cannabis, by distracting the brain from other tasks, a University of London report showed.

The loss of intelligence and disruption caused by electronic "info-mania," costs companies millions of dollars in lost productivity each year, according to the study by the university's Institute of Psychiatry.

"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," said Dr. Glenn Wilson, author of the research, in an interview. "Info-mania, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing mental sharpness. Companies should encourage a more balanced and appropriate way of working."

The study of 1,000 adults found their intelligence declined as tasks were interrupted by incoming e-mails and texts. The average reduction of 10 IQ points, though temporary, is more than double the four-point loss associated with smoking cannabis. A 10-point drop is also associated with missing a night of sleep, the report said.

Women were less affected than men. Their average decline in IQ was five points, compared with 15 for males, suggesting women are better at multi- tasking, Wilson said.

[Kithyen]

Well shit. If I get caught smokin' at work I can just say, "Well at least I wasn't emailing people on the interwebs and dropping productivity"

[Skogen]

what a load of horseshit.

[Sionistic]

So basically, they found that people get distracted sometimes.

Go Go London

[kyoukan]

what a load of horseshit.

I really don't think it is that off base. I mean it would be impossible to measure exactly how many IQ points you would lose, bute the constant barrage of email and text messages most people get, even if they are work related, greatly reduce productivity pretty much across the board.

[Sueven]

Yeah, absolutely. I would only describe it as 'horseshit' in that it's so obvious it need not be mentioned.

[Winnow]

I'd question the direct relation to a drop in IQ but there are way too many meetings and emails these days in a decent sized company.

You've got corporate announcements, department announcements, IT alerts/performance issues, more IT alerts when they're resolved, announcements of software upgrades, various daily department performance emails that all could be posted on the intranet and accessed if needed, HR announcements, birthday announcements, last day announcements, welcome newbie announcements, and someone's headlights are on in the parking lot announcements.

All of those get in the way of trying to catch all of the Outlook meeting invitations, meeting cancellations, meeting reschedules, for quartery, bi weekely and weekly meetings that really all could be summed up in an email that I'd be much happier to have than lose 30-120 minutes for each meeting of my surf time.

And then there are the actual emails that are actually important to your job that you have to weed through everything else to get.

I'd say internal spam emails don't drop your IQ but do impact performance. Those huge attachments lag the network which in turn, lags access to the internet slowing work performance down as you wait for VV to refresh. People who spam a 2mb company picnic powerpoint file to everyone in the company need to lose their job...And then there's those retards that accidentally send a personal email to a corporate wide mailing list...and the host of morons that keep replying to the original email explaining that they aren't the person it was intended for...and then the gaggle of helpers that try to explain to the entire mailing list what happened...300 emails later it's resolved with threats of termination from some higher up.

[Nick]

IQ and productivity in the work place are entirely seperate things. Yeah you could argue that those with a lower IQ are maybe not as productive, but that is a horseshit argument and not necessarily true.

Although it is possible to lose IQ points by reading something, say, if it is written by Midnyte.

[Sueven]

The IQ thing is true, I have no idea how anyone would try to measure such a thing. I just assumed they were using IQ almost as a metaphor to discuss productivity in easily quantifiable terms.

[Nick]

I think you're right, but (and I'm not getting the digs in here Sueven ) that surely is a completely retarded way to carry out any form of test.

It's like saying that people's height affects their ability to cross a road. Completely illogical.

[Skogen]

what a load of horseshit.

I really don't think it is that off base. I mean it would be impossible to measure exactly how many IQ points you would lose, bute the constant barrage of email and text messages most people get, even if they are work related, greatly reduce productivity pretty much across the board.

Reduce productivey, hell yes!! Reduce my IQ as much as or more than taking a couple of bong loads? No fucking way!!! I've done my fair share of bong loads in my life, and believe me, I speak from experience! I don't comparing an IQ loss to a loss of productivity is an apples to apples comparison.

[Lynks]

I don't comparing an IQ loss to a loss of productivity is an apples to apples comparison.

I can tell you lost a few already!

[Skogen]

I don't comparing an IQ loss to a loss of productivity is an apples to apples comparison.

I can tell you lost a few already!

lol!! After reading that again, I don't know how the hell I managed to make that error!