Scientists have found that the IQ of people in this multi-task switching state is declining more and more seriously.
The IQ of people who are busy answering emails while doing things will drop 10.
In 2004, Gloria Mark, a professor of information science at the University of California, Irvine, took her graduate students to observe the employees of two American technology companies 1000 hours. They found that employees in the office were interrupted by phone calls, emails or colleagues every 1 1 minute on average, and it took them 25 minutes to return to their previous jobs.
These figures are confusing: how can people finish their work in this way? British essayist Biko Iyer even extended it to: "This means that we will never catch up with our lives."
Before the invention of mobile phones and e-mail, it was considered normal that no one answered the landline phone; Not answering the phone now will be considered abnormal. In the past, the cost of sending an email was very high, and people didn't spend a lot of time replying to it every day; It's completely different now, so that when a neuroscientist's 10-year-old son was asked what his father does, he gave the answer: "Dad's job is to reply to emails."
More than 10 years after Loria Mark discovered the interference cycle in the office, there are more and more distractions brought by technology. After a while, we will light up the mobile phone screen, interrupt the conversation from time to time and check the WeChat message. And all kinds of handheld devices let us reply to emails anytime and anywhere.
"We are in an era full of interference. Mobile devices add value, are always running and may be interrupted at any time. The fragmentation of audience time is getting stronger and stronger. " James Short, a visiting researcher at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, said this. The research on the influence of continuous interruption on people has even formed a scientific field called "interruption science". One of the frequently mentioned findings is that the IQ of people who are busy answering emails while doing things will drop by 10, which is more important than smoking marijuana.
Psychologists have also found that it is precisely because technology enables people to understand what is happening in real time that we feel we must understand it at once. But in fact, a lot of news may not be that important.
The human brain cannot handle multiple tasks at the same time.
In the eyes of scientists, people are actually more like amateur jugglers. At the same time, there are several plates spinning at the top of the stick, and the performer has to juggle between them in case they fall.
The human brain can't handle multiple tasks at the same time, it just switches back and forth between different tasks. This is a point that scientists have repeatedly proved. As the famous experiment made by Dan Simon, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, demonstrated: When people watch the number of times basketball players pass the ball in the video, half of them may not see a "gorilla" casually walking across the field during the passing process.
Some preliminary research by scientists confirms our intuition: if you do two things at the same time, you can't do anything well.
Mark and his colleagues found that people tried to finish more work in a shorter time, but it came at a price. On the one hand, it will increase people's pressure; On the other hand, sometimes people will sacrifice the quality of their work. Neuroscience researchers have found that switching between different tasks can make the brain feel tired and dizzy. This will not only affect people's cognitive level, but also affect people's physical function.
Daniel levitin, a Canadian neuroscientist, pointed out that another problem brought by multitasking is that people have to make decisions constantly during this process: "Have I read this information? Shall I continue my work or do something else first? " After a person has made many decisions on small things, he enters a state of exhaustion. If something important happens at this time, he may not make a good decision.
With the internet, the desire brought by dopamine can be satisfied quickly.
People are fascinated by WeChat and Weibo, and have an irresistible impulse to check the latest news, which may be related to dopamine in the brain. According to Kent Beric, a neuroscientist at the University of Michigan, dopamine makes people look for rewards. It makes people want it.
Studies have shown that when unexpected and novel events occur, the brain will secrete dopamine. With the internet, the desire brought by dopamine can be satisfied quickly. For example, if you want to chat with a friend, send her a WeChat immediately, get a reply within half a minute, and then you want to continue to reply. This forms a cycle of "want" and "satisfaction", and each satisfaction brings more desires.
Neurologist Podrick believes that people seek information again and again, which is similar to seeking drugs again and again. Our self-control ability is too weak. This state of life makes Biko Ye Yi feel that "we are more and more like emergency room doctors, always on standby".
In a study, British scientists found that the appearance of mobile phones when people are talking is enough to have a negative impact on interpersonal intimacy and the quality of conversation. This is why some companies have started to set up a special "meditation period", that is, all employees are required to turn off their computers and mobile phones for a period of time every week, and then meditate for several hours. In Baudrake's view, whether and how the brains of children who grow up in this fast-paced multitasking environment will be different from those of their predecessors in adulthood is a question that scientists still don't know the answer to, and this is precisely a "million-dollar question".