Email, IM - was for your IQ than POT!!!!

[SPURSX3]

 http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/22...t.iq/index.html


E-mails 'hurt IQ more than pot'
Friday, April 22, 2005 Posted: 8:08 AM EDT (1208 GMT)


 
 LONDON, England -- Workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than a person smoking marijuana, a British study shows.

The constant interruptions reduce productivity and leave people feeling tired and lethargic, according to a survey carried out by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard.

The survey of 1,100 Britons showed:


Almost two out three people check their electronic messages out of office hours and when on holiday


Half of all workers respond to an e-mail within 60 minutes of receiving one


One in five will break off from a business or social engagement to respond to a message.


Nine out of 10 people thought colleagues who answered messages during face-to-face meetings were rude, while three out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.

But the mental impact of trying to balance a steady inflow of messages with getting on with normal work took its toll, the UK's Press Association reported.

In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King's College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day.

He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.

"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," Wilson said. "We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness.

"Companies should encourage a more balanced and appropriate way of working."

Wilson said the IQ drop was even more significant in the men who took part in the tests.

"The research suggests that we are in danger of being caught up in a 24-hour 'always on' society," said David Smith of Hewlett Packard.

"This is more worrying when you consider the potential impairment on performance and concentration for workers, and the consequent impact on businesses."

 

[Joe Vancil]

Nine out of 10 people thought colleagues who answered messages during face-to-face meetings were rude, while three out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.

Uh...was the person doing the math on this stat distracted by e-mail, or was he just stoned?

 

[Derek Bodner]

The constant interruptions reduce productivity and leave people feeling tired and lethargic, according to a survey carried out by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard.

What's the definition of IQ?

I didn't think a drop in productivity was the same as a drop in IQ.


From dictionary.com:

IQ

n : a measure of a person's intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test; the ratio of a person's mental age to their chronological age (multiplied by 100) [syn: intelligence quotient, IQ, I.Q.]

Doesn't it almost sound like they're measuring something else?

[rickortreat]

They are measuring something else- the effect of various activities on the individuals intellectual capacity.

One's a person's IQ is established, that is generally considered to be a constant, a characteristic that doesn't change.

But we all know at least on a subjective basis, that sometimes we're more "on" than others.  

I'm sure everyone here has gotten "stressed out at work" and now we have evidence that this has an impact on our ability to perform, at least as measured by an IQ test.

There's so much disinformation out there about things like Marijuana, that it's a good thing to demonstrate what is true about it.

The most important thing to me is why it became illegal in the first place.  Apparently during the 30's when the act was passed, scientists had discovered a way to denature hemp, makeing it a suitable substitute for trees in making paper.  Weyerhauser, St. Regis and the other large timber companies had a lot of money invested in the land and logging equipment, and were terrified of being put out of business by farmers who could easilly grow plenty of weed season after season, effectively devaluing their holdings.

Today it's still illegal because the government wants it that way.  Not to protect you, but to employ people in law enforcement, to build jails (The Bush family sells a lot of products to penitentiaries- SURPRISE!) and create an illegal revenue stream to finance extracurricular govt. activities, not to mention siezing assets of alleged drug dealers.  It's big business for the government, and another way you get screwed by the people who are suppossed to be serving you.

Your tax dollars are being wasted persecuting people for what is essentially a harmless activity.  Far less damageing than alchohol, probably less harmfull than tobacco, and certainly less damageing to you than doing time in jail!  It's a scam perpetrated on US citizens, legislating behavior in a direct violation of the spirit, if not the letter of the consitution.

Oh, say can you see?

[WayOutWest]

They are measuring something else- the effect of various activities on the individuals intellectual capacity.

One's a person's IQ is established, that is generally considered to be a constant, a characteristic that doesn't change.

But we all know at least on a subjective basis, that sometimes we're more "on" than others.  

I'm sure everyone here has gotten "stressed out at work" and now we have evidence that this has an impact on our ability to perform, at least as measured by an IQ test.

There's so much disinformation out there about things like Marijuana, that it's a good thing to demonstrate what is true about it.

The most important thing to me is why it became illegal in the first place.  Apparently during the 30's when the act was passed, scientists had discovered a way to denature hemp, makeing it a suitable substitute for trees in making paper.  Weyerhauser, St. Regis and the other large timber companies had a lot of money invested in the land and logging equipment, and were terrified of being put out of business by farmers who could easilly grow plenty of weed season after season, effectively devaluing their holdings.

Today it's still illegal because the government wants it that way.  Not to protect you, but to employ people in law enforcement, to build jails (The Bush family sells a lot of products to penitentiaries- SURPRISE!) and create an illegal revenue stream to finance extracurricular govt. activities, not to mention siezing assets of alleged drug dealers.  It's big business for the government, and another way you get screwed by the people who are suppossed to be serving you.

Your tax dollars are being wasted persecuting people for what is essentially a harmless activity.  Far less damageing than alchohol, probably less harmfull than tobacco, and certainly less damageing to you than doing time in jail!  It's a scam perpetrated on US citizens, legislating behavior in a direct violation of the spirit, if not the letter of the consitution.

Oh, say can you see?

I thought pot was outlawed long before that because of the cotton industry.  Hemp can replace cotton in the textile industry.

Hemp is comming back slowly but surely in "non-recreation" uses.

[rickortreat]

I read this a long time ago, but couldn't remember exaclty where, but I did find a link that explains this in great detail.

Copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://tinyurl.com/agls5

[westkoast]

They are measuring something else- the effect of various activities on the individuals intellectual capacity.

One's a person's IQ is established, that is generally considered to be a constant, a characteristic that doesn't change.

But we all know at least on a subjective basis, that sometimes we're more "on" than others. 

I'm sure everyone here has gotten "stressed out at work" and now we have evidence that this has an impact on our ability to perform, at least as measured by an IQ test.

There's so much disinformation out there about things like Marijuana, that it's a good thing to demonstrate what is true about it.

The most important thing to me is why it became illegal in the first place.  Apparently during the 30's when the act was passed, scientists had discovered a way to denature hemp, makeing it a suitable substitute for trees in making paper.  Weyerhauser, St. Regis and the other large timber companies had a lot of money invested in the land and logging equipment, and were terrified of being put out of business by farmers who could easilly grow plenty of weed season after season, effectively devaluing their holdings.

Today it's still illegal because the government wants it that way.  Not to protect you, but to employ people in law enforcement, to build jails (The Bush family sells a lot of products to penitentiaries- SURPRISE!) and create an illegal revenue stream to finance extracurricular govt. activities, not to mention siezing assets of alleged drug dealers.  It's big business for the government, and another way you get screwed by the people who are suppossed to be serving you.

Your tax dollars are being wasted persecuting people for what is essentially a harmless activity.  Far less damageing than alchohol, probably less harmfull than tobacco, and certainly less damageing to you than doing time in jail!  It's a scam perpetrated on US citizens, legislating behavior in a direct violation of the spirit, if not the letter of the consitution.

Oh, say can you see?

I thought pot was outlawed long before that because of the cotton industry.  Hemp can replace cotton in the textile industry.

Hemp is comming back slowly but surely in "non-recreation" uses.

Problem is people still think you could cut up your hemp hat and pack it in the bong and get high.  I know its 2005, go figure.

The article confused me a bit.  I also wasnt sure what the hell they were saying.  I do know this though...emails and instant messages are more equal to crack.  Take it from Mr. Obsessive compulsive email man aka your good ol pal Koast.  I have to answer my email.  No matter what.  Jesus could be floating across the 405 freeway and id have to make sure all emails were at least read or replied too.  I get 30 emails on average a day strickly work related (gotta love being in IT).  Then I have email from friends/family and everyones favorite emails that come from their favorite stores online (like djcity.com for me!).  Honestly, id probably do better if I was stoned at work.  At least then id be so high I could focus in on one thing till it is finished and then slowly make my way to the next.  Instead of working on something, answering an email the second it pops up, and then either going to help someone when they can wait or sit and type up an email with a response explaining the problem.

[rickortreat]

Well having been in IT myself, I want to make sure I'm on top of everything I've got going.  You have to make sure you configure things properly so you don't have any problems later, it's easy to make a mistake configuring a router or changing something in Active Directory.

A lot of the stuff you've done so many times before, you probably could do it wasted out of your gourd, but for those times when you've got to deal with higher ups, it's a bad idea.

The biggest thing for me is cleaning out my inbox, I don't delete things as fast as I should. I prefer e-mails to phone calls anyway.  The e-mail can wait until I get the chance to deal with it.  A phone call is more demanding of your attention.