“A new study suggests that people who often do multiple tasks in a variety of media — texting, instant messaging, online video watching, word processing, Web surfing, and more — do worse on tests in which they need to switch attention from one task to another than people who rarely multitask in this way…” http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/25/multitasking.harmful/index.html

Dr Tom Stafford, a lecturer at the University of Sheffield and co-author of the book Mind Hacks, believes that the same fundamental learning mechanisms that drive gambling addicts are also at work in email users. “Both slot machines and email follow something called a ‘variable interval reinforcement schedule’… This means that rather than reward an … Continue reading “Email is as addictive as a slot machine | Technology | The Guardian”

“A July Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study found text messaging is 23 times as dangerous, reaching for an electronic device is 6.7 times as dangerous, and dialing a cell phone is 5.9 times as dangerous as nondistracted driving.”