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May 27, 2008

Workers live in a continuous partial attention stage

Nowadays, proffesionals workers live in a state of continuous partial attention. The motivation is we don't want to miss anything because being connected makes us feel important.

It's my BlackBerry or my cell phone. How many phone calls did I get? Who did call me? Who is looking for me? What did I miss?

A lot of people would be lost without the telephones, handheld messaging devices and computer instant messages, said Putzier.
In some cases, people would feel bad if they weren't constantly interrupted.

For some people, interruptions aren't interruptions to their job. Interruptions are their job. Workers tend to be unable to resist the temptation of calls or messages.

Why don't they just shut off your e-mail? Why don't they shut off your phone or close your door? The answer is because you can never tell where a more important message will arrive.

Basex calculated the cost of interruptions in lost working hours to U.S. business is $588 billion a year.
No doubt: It's a lot of time and productivity wasted.

A sort of double-edged situation?

People like the convenience and possibilities that this technology affords them when they want to use it, but they don't like the intrusions that it creates for them when other people want to express the same rights.

The constantly connected trend is sowing the seeds of its own negative effects. Increasingly we fill more that we are overstimulated, overwhelmed and unfulfilled by information technologies.

May 26, 2008

Teens engage in electronic communication

87% of all teens engage at least occasionally in some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites, according to Pew Internet Project.

Although participation in these activities is widespread, 60% of teens who send these communications do not consider them to be “writing.” 38% of teens think of these communications as writing, and an additional 2% don’t know whether they consider them to be writing or not.