THIS is
Charles Lax's brain on speed.
Mr. Lax, a
44-year-old venture
capitalist, is sitting in a
conference for
telecommunications executives
at a hotel near Los Angeles,
but he is not all here. Out of
one ear, he listens to a live
presentation about cable
television technology;
simultaneously, he surfs the
Net on a laptop with a
wireless connection, while
occasionally checking his
mobile device — part phone,
part pager and part Internet
gadget — for e-mail.
Mr. Lax flew
from Boston and paid $2,000 to
attend the conference, called
Vortex. But he cannot unwire
himself long enough to give
the presenters his complete
focus. If he did, he would
face a fate worse than lack of
productivity: he would become
bored.
"It's
hard to concentrate on one
thing," he said, adding:
"I think I have a
condition."
The ubiquity
of technology in the lives of
executives, other
businesspeople and consumers
has created a subculture of
the Always On — and a
brewing tension between
productivity and freneticism.
For all the efficiency gains
that it seemingly provides,
the constant stream of data
can interrupt not just dinner
and family time, but also
meetings and creative time,
and it can prove very tough to
turn off.
Some people
who are persistently wired say
it is not uncommon for them to
be sitting in a meeting and
using a hand-held device to
exchange instant messages
surreptitiously — with
someone in the same meeting.
Others may be sitting at a
desk and engaging in
conversation on two phones,
one at each ear. At social
events, or in the grandstand
at their children's soccer
games, they read news feeds on
mobile devices instead of
chatting with actual human
beings.
These speed
demons say they will fall
behind if they disconnect, but
they also acknowledge feeling
something much more powerful:
they are compulsively drawn to
the constant stimulation
provided by incoming data.
Call it O.C.D. — online
compulsive disorder.
"It's
magnetic," said Edward M.
Hallowell, a psychiatry
instructor at Harvard.
"It's like a tar baby:
the more you touch it, the
more you have to."
Dr.
Hallowell and John Ratey, an
associate professor at Harvard
and a psychiatrist with an
expertise in attention deficit
disorder, are among a growing
number of physicians and
sociologists who are assessing
how technology affects
attention span, creativity and
focus. Though many people
regard multitasking as a
social annoyance, these two
and others are asking whether
it is counterproductive, and
even addicting.
The pair
have their own term for this
condition: pseudo-attention
deficit disorder. Its
sufferers do not have actual
A.D.D., but, influenced by
technology and the pace of
modern life, have developed
shorter attention spans. They
become frustrated with
long-term projects, thrive on
the stress of constant fixes
of information, and physically
crave the bursts of
stimulation from checking
e-mail or voice mail or
answering the phone.
"It's
like a dopamine squirt to be
connected," said Dr.
Ratey, who compares the
sensations created by
constantly being wired to
those of narcotics — a hit
of pleasure, stimulation and
escape. "It takes the
same pathway as our drugs of
abuse and pleasure."
"It's
an addiction," he said,
adding that some people cannot
deal with down time or quiet
moments. "Without it, we
are in withdrawal."
ACCORDING to research compiled
by David E. Meyer, a
psychology professor at the
University of Michigan,
multitaskers actually hinder
their productivity by trying
to accomplish two things at
once. Mr. Meyer has found that
people who switch back and
forth between two tasks, like
exchanging e-mail and writing
a report, may spend 50 percent
more time on those tasks than
if they work on them
separately, completing one
before starting the other.
As a result,
Mr. Meyer said, businesspeople
who multitask "are making
themselves worse
businesspeople."
He says
little research has been done
into why some people are
compulsively drawn to
multitasking. But he theorizes
that the allure has several
layers. Multitasking offers a
guise of productivity, a
"macho" show of
accomplishment, and
similarities to a quick
amphetamine rush.
"It's
related to what happens to
skydivers or jet pilots,"
he said. "They put
themselves in situations
where, if they don't perform
at peak efficiency, they'll
crash and burn. In the
aftermath there is a rush of
chemicals."
Patrick P.
Gelsinger, the chief
technology officer at Intel,
says it is clear that the
overall time spent in front of
screens — whether desktop
computers or hand-held devices
— is rising. "Time
spent watching television is
down," he said. "But
over all you see a
discretionary increase in the
amount of time people are
connected to technology."
The presence
of such devices, as well as
their power, will only grow.
Networks that provide wireless
Internet access are in their
early stages. Intel has put
the full force of its science
and marketing effort behind
wireless devices and the
superfast miniature
microprocessors that power
them.
Intel
portrays computers as pushing
productivity, and Mr.
Gelsinger scoffs at the idea
that digital devices have a
compulsive or physically
addictive draw. "We don't
make drugs," he said.
"We make technology
building blocks that move the
world forward in all
ways."
But he
concedes that there can be a
point at which the constant
accessibility of information
is hard to escape.
In one
meeting at Intel, Mr.
Gelsinger said he found
himself sending an instant
message to his boss across the
room — a potential
distraction, though he argued
that by doing so, he did not
have to engage in
"disruptive
whispering." At other
times, Mr. Gelsinger has had
to remind himself not to use
e-mail on his laptop during a
meeting because it can send
the message that he is not
paying full attention.
SOMETIMES, discipline must be
imposed from the outside. At a
recent technology conference
organized by The Wall Street
Journal and attended by
industry heavyweights like
Bill Gates of Microsoft,
Steve Jobs of Apple
Computer and Stephen M.
Case of AOL
Time Warner, people were
discouraged from using their
wireless Internet access
during presentations.
Bucking the
recent tradition at trade
shows and technology
conferences, the organizers
decided not to provide
wireless Internet access
inside the conference.
"We
wanted people to absorb what
the speakers were
saying," said Walt
Mossberg, a technology
columnist at The Journal.
"We
decided that if you have Wi-Fi,
it would be destructive,"
he added. "If you have
the Internet, it will win out.
People imagine they can
multitask, but sometimes
people overestimate the extent
to which they can do it."
If
multitasking creates a problem
for people, the cause is not
the gadget makers themselves,
said Jeff Hallock, the senior
director for consumer products
at Sprint
PCS, the mobile telephone
carrier. The company has been
selling the manna of
multitasking: phones that can
also take digital pictures,
send e-mail and instant
messages and download music.
But Mr. Hallock says those
functions help people stay
organized, not make them
frenetic.
"We're
enhancing people's lives so
they can have more control of
the flurry of activity that's
seemingly coming in," he
said.
"You
don't have to check your voice
mail," he added.
"We're giving you the
chance to do so."
The notion
that using all these devices
creates a harmful addiction is
absurd to Bruce P. Mehlman,
assistant commerce secretary
for technology policy and a
former executive at Cisco
Systems. Mr. Mehlman said
the presence of many gadgets
in people's lives created not
a cacophony, but harmony and
balance.
Mobile
phones, wireless Internet
devices and laptops have
liberated executives, he said,
allowing them to leave the
office and to spend more time
at home. The users of these
technologies are constantly
wired, he said, but to a very
positive goal.
"Ten
years ago, you had to be in
the office 12 hours,"
said Mr. Mehlman, who said he
now spent 10 hours a day at
work, giving him more time
with his wife and three
children, while also making
use of his wireless-enabled
laptop, BlackBerry and mobile
phone.
"I get
to help my kids get dressed,
feed them breakfast, give them
a bath and read them stories
at night," he said. He
can also have Lego air fights
— a game in which he and his
5-year-old son have imaginary
dogfights with Lego airplanes.
Both love
the game, and it has an added
benefit for Dad: he can play
with one hand while using the
other to talk on the phone or
check e-mail. The multitasking
maneuver occasionally requires
a trick: although Mr. Mehlman
usually lets his son win the
Lego air battles, he sometimes
allows himself to win, which
forces his son to spend a few
minutes putting his plane back
together.
"While
he rebuilds his plane, I check
my e-mail on the BlackBerry,"
Mr. Mehlman explained.
Mr. Lax,
too, cannot pass up the chance
to use every bit of technology
that comes his way. A graduate
of Boston University who lives
outside Boston, he is managing
general partner at GrandBanks
Capital, a venture investment
firm. He serves on the boards
of three companies, working to
turn them into successful
ventures. "I build
companies one customer at a
time," he said, adding
that his investments are up
against other well-financed
competitors. "It's a race
against time."
Mr. Lax uses
technology to keep up. He is,
by his own admission,
"Always On."
On his
office desk is a land-line
telephone, a mobile phone, a
laptop computer connected to
several printers, and a
television, often tuned to CNN
or CNBC. At his side is the
aptly named Sidekick, a mobile
device that serves as camera,
calendar, address book,
instant-messaging gadget and
fallback phone. It can browse
the Internet and receive
e-mail. He has been known to
pick it up whenever it chirps
at him — and he acknowledges
having used it to check e-mail
while in the men's restroom.
There is no
down time in the car, either.
"I talk on the phone, but
I have a headset," Mr.
Lax said. Does he do anything
else, like using his Sidekick
to read e-mail? "I won't
be quoted as saying what else
I do because it could get me
arrested," he said,
laughing.
Mr. Lax said
he loved the constant
stimulation. "It's
instant gratification,"
he said, and it staves off
boredom. "I use it when
I'm in a waiting situation —
if I'm standing in line,
waiting to be served for
lunch, or getting takeout
coffee at Starbucks.
And, my God, at the airport
it's disastrous to have to
wait there.
"Being
able to send an e-mail in real
time is just — " Mr.
Lax paused. "Can you hold
for a second? My other line is
ringing."
When he
returned, he said he shared
this way of working with many
venture capitalists. "We
all suffer a kind of A.D.D,"
he said. "It's a bit of a
joke, but it's true. We are
easily bored. We have lots of
things going on at the same
time."
The
technology gives him a way to
direct his excess energy.
"It is a kind of
Ritalin," he said,
referring to the drug commonly
taken by people with attention
deficit disorder.
BUT he said technology
dependence could have its down
side. "I'm in meetings
all the time with people who
are focused on what they're
doing on their computers, not
on the presentation," he
said.
During the
Vortex telecommunications
conference, held in May in
Dana Point, Calif., he and
dozens of others were using
wireless Internet access. He
said that he was paying
attention to the speaker,
using his Internet connection
to look up information about
the cable industry.
"I was
supporting the effort of the
speaker by figuring the
elements he was talking
about," Mr. Lax said. He
paused. "I was also doing
e-mail so I guess I wasn't
giving 100 percent," he
added. "I was 40 percent
supporting the effort, and 60
percent doing other
things."
Indeed, he
said, the technology can be a
bit distracting. "But
it's not a problem," he
said. "Being able to
process lots of data allows me
to be more efficient and
productive."
"It
allows me to accelerate
success."