Poland and getting away from technology

September 3, 2010 - 1:39 PM by

A student on a class trip to Poland

I wrote in an earlier post about how human beings aren’t built to truly multitask – an action we increasingly rely on to parse all the data coming at us from the web or our mobile devices. New research is trying to figure out not only what happens psychologically when we try to do two things at once, but whether our brain neurology is being re-mapped by our incessant use of technology.

You don’t have to go much further than our teenage daughter Merav, who just came back from a school trip to Poland this week, to gain critical insight. Merav voluntarily disconnected herself from the Internet for a week. Did this make a difference to her experience? I’ll get back to that in a moment.

First, I want to look at research being done by New York Times technology journalist Matt Richtel who participated earlier this year in a similar journey to the technology wasteland – a backpacking trip undertaken by a group of scientists where gadgets were banned and their itinerary took them far out of the range of cell phones.

Would these highly connected researchers act – no, think – differently in such a situation, he asks?

The scientists were split, according to Richtel in an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air program, with some feeling that “the constant stream of data was making it increasingly difficult to focus and concentrate” and others saying “the benefits of having constant access to information far outweighed any consequences.”

But all of the scientists noticed that they began to feel more relaxed and more engaged in the world. They slept a little better; waited a bit longer before answering a question. “You don’t feel in (such) a rush to do anything, your sense of urgency fades,” Richtel says.

But only after three days – that was the amount of time for the disconnect effect to kick in. This might explain why we feel more relaxed after a three-day weekend as opposed to a “normal” two-day break from work.

Why is this the case? A laboratory study had rats learning new tasks. When the rats were given time away from the task to process it, the action moved into memory and real long-term learning took place. Without that down time, the rats were more prone to forget what they’d just done.

We can extrapolate that, Richtel says, to our contemporary lives, where we rarely give ourselves a break. If we’re waiting in line for cheese at the SuperSol supermarket and there are three people ahead, what do we do? We pull out our smart phone and check email, browse the Internet or play a game. Even people without smart phones may listen to music on an iPod (I know I’m guilty of that).

What we need to do, Richtel claims, is simply “be,” to not fill every moment with something electronic, to let the learning consolidate in our brains. To have “down time.”

Which brings me back to Merav. Our daughter’s experience in Poland, visiting lost Jewish communities and crying at the concentration camps, was intense – “difficult but meaningful” is how she described it upon her return home. Was her level of engagement different than her peers, many of whom were texting away at the dinner table?

While the research suggests yes, it would be presumptuous for me to make such a claim. But it’s undeniable that our use of technology profoundly affects us. I, for one, am looking forward to the Jewish holidays this year – Rosh Hashana and Shabbat coincide in such a way that those who observe the High Holy Days according to a more strict interpretation of Jewish law will have a full three days of enforced technology deprivation.

I wonder how I’ll feel on the other side?

Tags: , , , • Category: health, Israeliness, Technology 

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2 Comments on Poland and getting away from technology

  1. Technology By Day » Poland and getting away from technology | ISRAELITY on Fri, Sep 3rd 2010 6:29 PM

    2. [...] the original post: Poland and getting away from technology | ISRAELITY Tags: look-at-research, research-being, richtel, similar-journey, technology, times, [...]

  2. Getting Away from Technology — Blum Interactive Media on Mon, Sep 6th 2010 5:32 PM

    3. [...] shorter version of this article appeared on Israelity. Share and [...]

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