April 22, 2005

emails "pose threat to IQ" The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers.
posted by Wolof 19 years ago
  • piss off, I've got to check my mail!
  • I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone whose emails I have not responded to, but I'M TOO SMART FOR THAT! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
  • or you've read too many and are now too dumb to reply to them.
  • Somebody, please tell me what the article is about. I lost interest after the first paragraph.
  • Aaaah but whaaa ummm errrrr ssssssss (email + cannabis)
  • .... (forgot what I was going to post)
  • well I'm fucked double, aren't I. sigh. hey, look, lint!
  • does this mean community webloggers must be the dumbest shits on earth? cannabis affects concentration? i've always found it helps me tune out the background noise and focus on one thing.
  • Is it really loss of IQ? Morelike distraction and thought overload. They didn't say where the raw data was published. I wonder why checking email IS so addictive?
  • Is it? I dislike checking e-mail, almost as much as I hate checking my answering machine.
  • You've got good habits goofyfoot...I somehow think you are in the minority. Email should be inoperable except for 10mins every hour or the like.
  • It depends: I dread checking my 'work' email, specially those with ALL CAPS or "urgent" titles from boss or clients. But my personal one; I feel bad if there are no new messages there. Nowadays, I wonder how I managed to work, do research and stay informed in the days before the net. At the same time, am amazed at how we manage to get anything done, with the myriad things and stuff on the net, distractions and time wasters, email acquaintances and hyper-specific interest sites.
  • Somebody, please tell me what the article is about. I lost interest after the first paragraph. Pay attention!
  • Flagpole, it's so interesting to straddle this information age, isn't it? I started working when I was maybe ten, and remember the thrill of scoring an office job with a typewriter that allowed one to correct typos in an LCD display. Thrill, nothing, it was great! I remember the first fax! It was Twilight Zone time. It was 1985 or so, and we stood around the fax machine, staring and shaking our heads. And now I remember how hard it was to slack off before the internets. My online experience is only nine years, and I've been in the work force since I was around ten. How in the world did people slack off before this? I can't remember.
  • somewhere in the city years we took our first implants grafted ourselves dutifully on branching dotted lines aligned ourselves to static four seasons through a year chronicled in 24 hours
  • "How in the world did people slack off before this? I can't remember." Joined a Union.
  • beeswacky...nicely done.. but now I don't want to work today, and turning off the computer to ungraft is a strong possibility....
  • If my employer requires that I use a computer, I will sue them. Are they trying to destroy my health?
  • I wonder how many jobs pose a threat to IQ?
  • I'm with goofyfoot. I can't stand reading my email. I go through great lengths to avoid reading it, and I never send it. Now I have an excuse to avoid it. Actually, now I have an excuse to start smoking pot. This is gonna rule.
  • Well I love email at work. No need to talk to anyone and no need to leave your seat. And if you frame your words right, you can pass on your work to others as well. It can be really sneakily efficient.
  • This is the stupidest god damn thing I ever heard. Reading your fucking email is not going to reduce your IQ. That is patently ridiculous. Oh poor little human! Distracted by email! Christ, it's amazing we made it out of the swamps with such poor concentration skills. Forget sabre tooth tigers, fuckin' email is the species killer. IQ is just some bloody theory, anyway. There's no 'IQ lobe' in the brain. What ratio of brain cells die when I check my email? WTF kind of crank bullshit is this? I think the mention of marijuana is key. This is a SE joke by the Erisians or summat.
  • Hey, Shut Up, Chy. We could make some money from suing the bastards. Especially if we send all the documentation over the internets and reduce their IQ until it resembles their shoe sizes.
  • Heh, Chy, you're awesome. But I don't think having brain cells die is the only way to get dumb*. Plenty people have brain cells die without getting dumber*, and plenty people get dumber* without having brain cells die. But then, I'm not confident that this poor concentration is a "bad thing". One could make the argument that "poor concentration" is just a negative-loaded euphamism for "constantly alert and adaptive". Their brains have learned how to gather information the most efficient way. Yes, I can see how it may seem counter-intuitive that this method involves being easily distracted, but it isn't the first counter-intuitive thing that's ever hapened. I'm going to bother typing "having a drop in their Intelligence Quotient" over and over. Fuck that. Even if this disclaimer is longer to type, at least it isn't redundant.
  • A better title would be "constant distraction (like e-mail) reduces your ability in performing tasks like those commonly found on IQ tests". Unfortunately that's too wordy.
  • my brain cells has all fell out and maken a mess on the floor were people walken about and my remembeer got broke too but no one knows and noone cares since they havel lost all theirs to
  • Methinks the researchers were a bit biased. I have a feeling that they knew what their conclusion was going to be before they even completed the study. I bet jumping up and down and tapping your head while singing hello dolly will make you do worse on IQ tests too, but that's not making you dumber it's distracting you. It's not about intelligence, it's about multi-tasking. I'm the kind of person who must be doing several things at once, but when I have something that I must focus on I shut down my email and my browser and do it. So while I think this study and its conclusion is ridiculous they do have a point about people learning how to work differently. (Although if they took away my internet I would QUIT, so clearly that's not the solution ;))
  • or, alternatively, what six.oh.six said :)
  • I'm with 606 and Kimberly. By this logic, needing to go to the toilet reduces your IQ - as does your persistent fantasy about tickling Katie Holmes' buttocks with an ostrich feather, you kinky little shit! Beer good, need wee-wee now.
  • Luddite nonsense.
  • I'm going to email everyone in the world a link to this article. It'll cause world-wide panic, mass confusion, and bring the global economy to a standstill. Then I'll take a nap.
  • It . . goes . . the thing, the email goes . . it damn. Wait - uhh . . . like, the email . . is . . . I Oooh! Porn!! *click*
  • I never actually fancied Katie Holmes, not for ordinary sex, but imagining tickling her naked buttocks with an ostrich (or even better, a peacock) feather is giving me the horn.
  • You kinky little shit!
  • Veddy kinky.
  • E-mail doesn't lower IQ. It's the solitaire I play in between the e-mails that
  • does
  • sorry--what does? That is
  • (three games of Hearts later) does.
  • katie who?
  • did
  • Again, one of the many advantages of not having any friends: I get very few emails.
  • It ... duhs?
  • I knew it smelled like bullshit.