Wilma Inventor-Miranda l July 18, 2023 l Manila Bulletin
When it comes to distractions, there are plenty nowadays. With the proliferation and continuous evolving of technological innovations, time robbers are also at every side. If we are not careful, at the end of a day or even worse at the end of our lives – the worst question we shall face is – where did my time go?
Be it in business or at work, in personal and family lives, we are bombarded by a lot of attention getters – of course not only technology but also other factors. But one area that we tend to take for granted – is our use of technology.
And that is also true for me. I set to work on a certain report, then I happen to pass by in my Viber or Messenger account and began to reply to messages and before I knew it, an hour has passed and I am not yet done with my reports. Emails too can be a culprit even if it is a business tool. Once you open your email and begin replying, your focus on your original task was already distracted and your line of thinking is disrupted. In a study made which is looking into how interruptions affect work, it shows that it took study participants twenty-three minutes to get back on a task after being distracted (Kermit Pattison “Worker Interrupted: The Cost of Task Switching”) be it by an email or other social media tools. Thus, it is important to set aside a time of the day when we reply to these tools and not just randomly.
Even if you use your devices for work-related activities, if you are not efficient in the use of these devices, it can be costly both to you and to your organization. Personally, I think there should be a training session in organizations on how to use their devices efficiently. Come to think of it, if you have to monitor your people and even yourself how many hours in a day do you stop to do some work to check on your social media and get stuck on it – you will realize there is little work you had really done for the day.
Of course, these distractions are not new only in this day and age. Years ago, we have television and radios and video games and karaoke but we have to go to a place to do this. The difference is, today even if we are at the dinner table or in a conference room, we are easily transported to a different world by just looking at our gadgets since it is always at our side. We are distracted from the important things as we let our minds got caught on the trivial.
A book I am reading now (“Things That Matter” by Joshua Becker), made me realize the distractions that can hinder us from becoming our best without even knowing it. He outlines how the overuse of technology can divert us from pursuits that really matter to us and enumerated that its overuse not only steals our time, but also makes us feel bad about ourselves, make us weaker, and makes us less effective in our work.
The worse part of it, we are not even aware except when we read it somewhere about the harmful effects of too much technology. We are also in denial that we can be possible victims of it and tell ourselves, only the young people are guilty of that. But sometimes it is surprising that there are young people who do not even have Facebook or Instagram or any social media account.
I know of one who is a valedictorian when she graduated from high school and does not have social media accounts. Now she is in college in the United States and continues to live without any social media account. Another one is now in her early 20s who buys books and is a voracious reader but closed all her social media accounts about some years back. These young people are starting to realize the havoc that social media can bring in their lives. And it is good that they started young to come to this realization.
In his book “ What The Internet is Doing in our Brains” Nicholas Carr said. “…. calm, focused, undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, and often overlapping bursts – the faster the better.” In other words, our ability to concentrate and think deeply which is important both at work and in our personal lives is being affected by technology.
And I agree with the Author that only a curmudgeon would refuse to see the riches of the Net – but at what price? There are benefits that technology brings, but let us not trade the more valuable aspects of our lives and worthy pursuits of personal and work goals for such riches.
Let us control technology before it controls our lives may sound like a cliché but it is because it is such an important reminder for all of us.
*** (Wilma Miranda is a Managing Partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associates, CPAs, Chair of the Ethics Committee of FINEX and member of the Board of Directors of KPS Outsourcing, Inc. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions.)