Technology Has Us So Plugged Into Data, We Have Turned Off
A new plague of inattention is spreading. It's called "surfer's voice" -- a habit of half-heartedly talking to someone on the telephone while simultaneously surfing the Web, reading e-mails, or trading instant messages.
On one end of the phone is an annoyed colleague or family member discussing an important topic. On the other end, a party puts on a meager soundtrack of knowing participation: "OK ... uh-hum ... right ... OK." It is punctuated with surreptitious tapping of a keyboard.
The brainy people who study these things call this phenomenon "absent presence." For years, researchers have discussed how cellphones have trampled over the once communal public space of sidewalks and restaurants. The idea is that we may be physically on a street corner, but our distracted minds are not. We do little bits of everything, and none well.
A convergence of technologies is making the distractions still worse. A new kind of personal computer called the Media Center allows users to easily watch TV on the same screen where they swap instant messages and burn music DVDs. And Asian cellphone companies have begun building television tuners into their most advanced models.
How we manage these relationships between technology and people is a growing source of anxiety. It's depressing, but somehow fitting, that convergence now allows us to be distracted from our distractions.
Some people are drawing the line. Ronald Rice , a communications professor at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J., says he has gotten more assertive with rude cellphone gabbers, once confronting a fellow patient at a physical-therapy clinic who was closing business deals on a nearby therapy table.
David Levy, a professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, thinks our information-drenched culture is ripe for a movement, akin to the ecology awakenings of the 1960s, that will explore bringing "information, silence and sanctuary" harmoniously into daily life. He himself has come to relish his honoring of the Jewish Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. For that 24-hour period, he doesn't touch a computer.
Just how little sanctuary is out there? Some research findings from the University of California at Irvine show the frenetic multitasking that can exist on the job. The UC team dispatched stopwatch-toting researchers to chart the work patterns of 14 people at a California financial-services company.
The preliminary findings showed that, on average, workers switched tasks -- from say, e-mail to the phone, to a computer spreadsheet -- about once every three minutes, either from interruptions or by their own choice.
Even Gloria Mark, the researcher conducting this study, describes the demands of e-mail on her own life as "nuts." She says software for organizing information needs a big upgrade. All the data we receive are still ghettoized into e-mail, spreadsheets and Web pages. We could use, instead, programs that will break down those walls, helping people keep their train of thought while they switch back and forth between different projects and devices.
More than 20 years into the PC revolution, this goal remains elusive.
Prof. Levy, however, sees surfer's voice as more than a technology issue. He says the distraction is the result of the failing of a culture that rewards mindless information saturation. He engages in daily meditation sessions to help clear out the cobwebs, but admits he, too, is addicted to the information that floods onto his PC and on his Web browser.
"The funny thing is, I check my e-mail before I meditate," he says via cellphone.
Perhaps the first step to combating surfer's voice is more self-discipline. We could start by knowing how much information we consume on a daily basis. One way would be to have an information-consumption bar on a PC screen, updating how many e-mails a PC user has sent and received in a given day. It might also keep a running tally of the number of Web sites visited, or the amount of time spent on one task.
Just as feasting on an abundance of rich, available food can make you overweight, so we seem gorged on too much easily accessed information. We need a kind of information diet. Technology could help, by allowing computer users to program in a daily cap of, say, two hours of Web surfing. Or to allow the sending of only 100 instant messages per day. Or to install a system that allows the checking of e-mail only three times per day.
Some people are willing to give it a try, without gadgets. The Liverpool City Council has promoted e-mail-free Wednesdays to get city employees talking again. Some big corporations already do some version of the same, by limiting access to a number of Web sites with site-blockers.
But would such an information diet lead to Big Brother-style coercion dictating the "right" way to work? There is an easier solution to surfer's voice: The next time a phone conversation turns into a one-way monologue, demand the surfer shut off the computer monitor and listen.
救救心不在焉的连线者?
一种新的心不在焉现象正在蔓延。一些人已养成了漫不经心的习惯，我们称之为"上网者的通话声"：他们一边接听电话，一边在网上冲浪、阅读电子邮件，或是发送和回复即时信息。
电话的一端是烦躁的同事或家庭成员在说著某个重要话题，而另一端的则懒散地敷衍著："好...嗯...对...好。"谈话间不时传出敲击键盘的声音。
研究人员称这种现象为"人在心不在"。数年来，研究者一直在探讨移动电话是如何影响一度为人们公用的通道和餐厅空间的。他们认为，我们可能身在街上，但心却飞到了别的地方。我们每件事都做了一点点，但都没做好。
技术的集成令这种心不在焉现象愈演愈烈。一种名为Media Center的新型个人电脑，让用户能够轻而易举地利用他们聊天和烧制音乐DVD时使用的电脑屏幕看电视。且亚洲一家移动电话公司已开始将电视调谐器制造成最先进的式样。
如何协调科技与人之间这些关系已成为一个日益令人焦虑的问题。现在，技术集成造成的精力分散又在分散我们的精力，这既令人烦恼，却也在情理之中。
有些人对此观点并不赞同。拉格斯新泽西州立大学(Rutgers in New Brunswic,NJ)的传播学教授罗纳德?莱斯(Ronald Rice)表示，他有一次在理疗诊所就碰上一个病友在他附近的治疗桌边打电话谈生意，从此让他对拿著手机喋喋不休而不顾及影响的人更加反感。
西雅图的华盛顿大学(University of Washington, Seattle)的教授大卫?列维(David Levy)认为，像60年代生态学意识的觉醒一样，信息浸透下的美国文化发生变化的时机已经成熟，而这一次将争取让"信息，静默与精神□息"和谐融入我们的日常生活。大卫自己就开始喜欢守犹太教安息日，时间是从周五日落到周六日落。在这24小时期间，他不接触电脑。
究竟还有多少领地可以让精神□息呢？加利福尼亚州大学爱尔文分校(University of California at Irvine)的研究结果表明，这种狂热的多重任务处理行为可能就存在工作当中。该研究团队安排人员对加州一家金融服务公司的14人进行工作模式监控。
最初结果显示，这些人进行工作内容转换，如从电子邮件转换到电话或电子表格的平均时间大约是三分钟，有时是因为受到干扰，也可能是主动的。
甚至进行此项研究的格罗里亚?马克(Gloria Mark)称她在自己的生活中查看电子邮件的欲望有些疯狂。她说，组织信息的软件需要进行一次大的升级。我们接收到的所有数据仍然分别集中在电子邮件，电子表格和网页中。我们可以用程序打破这些间隔，协助人们游刃在不同内容和设备之间时保持思维的连贯性。
尽管个人电脑的革命已过了20多年，但这一目标仍然困扰著人们。
然而，列维教授认为"上网者的通话声"反映的不仅仅是技术问题。他表示，这是美国文化失败的表现，这种文化鼓励无聊信息的渗透。他每日进行打坐冥想，帮助自己排除信息干扰，但他也承认，自己也沉浸于洪水般涌来的电脑和网页中的信息。
他在电话中说："有趣的是，我在打坐前还要查收电子邮件。"
或许，与"上网者的通话声"斗争的第一步是更多的自律。开始时，我们可以先了解我们每日可能消化多少信息。一个途径是在个人电脑上安装一个信息消化记录器，随时更新电脑用户在某一天收发的电子邮件数量。它还可以记录你访问的网站数量，或在做一件事所花费的时间。
就像丰盛的宴会上食物太多会让人体重增加一样，我们过量摄取了太多轻易获取的信息。我们需要进行信息节食。在技术手段上，可以给电脑用户设定一个每日信息浏览上限，如只能在网上冲浪两个小时，每日只能发送100条即时信息，或是安装一种一天只允许查看三次电子邮件的系统。
有些人希望进行一次不借助技术手段的尝试。利物浦城市委员会(Liverpool City Council)倡导大家星期三远离电子邮件，让市里的职员重新开始交谈。一些大公司已开展了同样的工作，用防火墙限制对很多网站的访问。 但是，这样的信息节食会不会导致大独裁者式的威压，强制人们采取"正确"的工作方法？对付"上网者的通话声"还有一个简便的方法：下次意识到通话变成了个人独白的时候，要求上网者关掉显示器，专心聆听。
