Wednesday, November 4, 2009

How Technology Helps Waste Time

Some people are blessed with an unwavering commitment to running their lives like clockwork. They have an agenda and go through their day according to a well defined plan. They wake up at the same time each day, go through the exact same routine and have each hour earmarked for a specific task. The rest of us are suffocating under an unforgiving tide of information overload.

Technology has made it a little too easy to get side tracked. We may start each day off with great intentions but, before we know it the day is done and our energy is sapped. When we finally slump down at the end of the day and wonder where the time went we scratch our heads wondering how checking a couple of emails ended up taking five hours. How did checking the weather turn into a marathon gaming session?

Even if gaming wasn't what ate up your time there is all that multitasking. Technology has made it extremely difficult to focus on one thing at at time. The time savings realized by automating redundant processes is stolen back by multiplying the number of possible processes we are now capable of taking on.

Aside from a very few individuals, most people are not quite as good at multitasking as they would like to think. This means that the majority of people continually overload on the amount of things they think they will be able to accomplish in a day, an afternoon, an hour. That's why so many things are left undone. The bucket list of today's generation is going to be much larger than that of our grandparents. I say grandparents because many of our parents have gotten caught up in the same conundrum.

Most people are simply not content enough to relax and take it easy because the washing machine is taking care of the laundry. So, they either fill the void by taking it easier or not taking it easy enough. What we have lost is the ability to stop and really smell the roses because we are so busy doing online research on which soil options are most appropriate for the local climate and looking for the best deal on rose bulbs. Technology has taken so much of the routine out of our routine that we are desperately looking for a way to fill the void.

We no longer have to prowl the produce aisle looking for a date or join book clubs and walking groups because we can spend hours on hours reviewing online profiles. Times certainly have changed quickly and most people have yet to realize just how much time has been wasting through technological. pursuits.