While we’re celebrating Administrative Professionals Week, I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the things many of us have lost as we take care of everything ourselves. The independence is great — who would want to go back to the old days of dictation or writing everything out by hand for someone…
Have you heard about Computer Vision Syndrome? The American Optometric Association says staring at a computer screen for too long creates a variety of problems, including eyestrain, blurred vision, headaches, and dry eyes. Apparently, staring at a pixelated screen is more taxing than reading words on a page. In addition to adding unnecessary stress, this…
A new study has just been described in Psych Central Newsletter that shows that sleeping — even a nap — refreshes your brain and makes it easier to learn new information. It also suggests that if you’re getting six hours a night or less, you’re missing out on a good deal of this refreshment.
This…
At a presentation I recently gave in Atlanta to professionals who help students adjust to college, I was asked about taking notes during lecture. Some people recommend taking notes because it focuses your attention on extracting the main points. Other people argue against it, saying that writing down notes interferes with listening to what the…
I was recently having a conversation about multitasking with a professor colleague of mine. He was saying that he talks on his phone constantly when he’s in the car — using a hands-free device.* Then he went on to say that he continues to talk on the phone as he parks his car and walks…
A few days after did a call-in radio show on Wisconsin Public Radio with Larry Meiller, I got an email from someone who had heard the show and was interested in having me speak to her group. By the time I had a chance to email her back, I received this “away” message from her:
“Dear…
I gave a speech on Sunday at the 30th Annual Conference on the First Year Experience — an organization of professionals who help students adjust to the college experience. I was telling them about the workshops I’ve been giving to college students called “Thriving on Campus and in Cyberspace: Staying Connected While Succeeding in School,”…
I’m convinced this is a problem that can be solved only by changing attitudes about how the mind spends its time; no authority figure can force kids to wean themselves away, at least at times, from the technology that they’ve grown up with and love.
Recent statistics say that cell phones are now being used more frequently for data (e.g., texting, web surfing) than for phone calls. This has led me to think more and more about trends in interpersonal communication in general. Until recently, almost all communication was face-to-face. To be sure, earlier civilizations had smoke signals, carrier pigeons,…
On today’s Huffington Post, the headline for Obama’s commencement speech is: “Obama: iPad, Xbox Turn Information Into A ‘Distraction’.” In his speech he is quoted as saying:
“And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment,…