Unplugged: Digital Reflections for the Holiday

With the holiday season upon us, a moment of digital reflection is in order. Consider the following:

• Fifteen years ago, the average business email load was 15 messages per day and people spent about 50 minutes reading them. (Personnel Journal, 1996). I am sure many of you remember the thrill of opening the email box and finding a message from a colleague and marveling at how this technology of instantaneous communication worked. Contrast that today's explosion of email overload where several hundred email messages per day is considered "normal" (not including text messages and phone calls). Today, if you spent 50 minutes for every 15 messages, you would never get to the bottom of the Inbox.

• Digital Interruptions are making it almost impossible to focus on work tasks. Interruptions come from many sources, including instant messaging, spam e-mail, telephone calls, and the Web. Think this is only your problem? One study found that 28% of an information worker's day is wasted by digital interruptions. Basex Research estimates that the impact of digital interruptions is 28 billion lost man-hours per annum in the United States, at a cost of $588 billion.

• Even when you able to ignore digital interruptions, you aren't getting much work done. The New York Times recently reported that the typical business worker changes computer windows an average of 37 times an hour. Another study found that knowledge workers spend 15 % of their time each day searching, and 50 % of these searches fail. So while you are focusing on "doing something," you end up flopping all over the place trying to find the information you need to complete the task.

• Sure there is lots of information out there, but who has the time or patience to read it. One study found that most web pages are viewed for 10 seconds or less and fewer than 1 on 10 page views extend beyond two minutes. Another study claims the average time spent on web page in the U.S. is 21 seconds. Most people can't absorb a web page's information in 21 seconds. We have devolved into a group of skimmers.

A recent book by Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains, argues persuasively that this mode of operation not only makes us unproductive, it also diminishes our ability to think deeply. The daily grind of perpetual window toggling and continuous interruptions is turning us into impatient, shallow, and intolerant individuals, with a diminished ability to show empathy for our fellow man. Carr concludes that our online experience is best summed up by the Roman philosopher Seneca: "To be everywhere is to be nowhere."

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So I suggest the upcoming holiday time is a good time to disconnect the Internet and spend quality time with friends and family. Taking a page (pun intended) from William Powers' new book Hamlet's Blackberry, this is a good time to declare an "Internet Holiday." Take the time to enjoy good company and ponder how to make 2011 and simpler and more productive year. This year, be somewhere and enjoy time with friends and family. Happy holidays.