Does Technology Increase Procrastination?

Recently, I wrote right here a couple of widespread excuse individuals report for why they procrastinate: They say our lives right now are a lot busier than prior to now. It appears that we have now a lot extra round us competing for our consideration and our behaviors. But that could be a fable—a fraudulent excuse, if you’ll. There have been 168 hours in every week for hundreds of years and life has progressed inside that timeframe. We can’t handle time; we handle ourselves.

Another widespread fraudulent excuse I‘ve heard often over the past 30-plus years of research on procrastination—and it too is a myth—is that today’s expertise makes it simpler to procrastinate. Our “tech toys” appear to “suck” on a regular basis we have now to do different issues and these units and packages hinder greater than assist us stay passable lives.

There is a few reality to this fable; most myths have some small degree of reality, which is why they unfold and are believed: They make sense, and we will relate. Clearly, there are some individuals who expertise a sense akin to “internet addition” from utilizing expertise so typically. It is a severe and seemingly rising concern, and remedy is really useful. (See Ferrari, 2010, for prolonged particulars on persistent procrastination).

Still, the query stays: Do expertise instruments right now promote procrastination by making it simpler to procrastinate than prior to now?

My reply: No.

Let me reply by telling a brief story from a media interview I did numerous years in the past. In 2006 a reporter from a Connecticut paper phoned me asking my opinion about snooze buttons on alarm clocks. Alarm clocks? Snooze buttons? Why ask me? What did I find out about them? (Does anybody nonetheless have these buttons—or these clocks? I do!)

The reporter continued, sharing that in 1956 snooze buttons had been first made out there for shopper use on alarm clocks, and it had now been 50 years since their first availability available on the market. Moreover, he claimed that snooze buttons had been the “first technology that allowed us to procrastinate.”

How intelligent! How attention-grabbing!

You see, urgent the snooze button on the clock features one other 8 or 9 minutes of “sleep” earlier than the alarm goes off once more. It permits an individual to procrastinate from getting up within the morning.

But additionally, how false. While the snooze button does let one sleep longer, it was not the primary expertise used to assist us procrastinate.

I did a bit investigating after that interview and realized that in 1885, Benz Motors created the primary gas-powered “automobile.” Now, as an alternative of taking time to tug the horses to at least one’s cab, arrange the reins for the carriage, expending quite a lot of time and effort, with the brand new “horseless carriage” an individual might wait till they had been prepared and simply drive down the street for miles to see their pal. The auto trade let individuals procrastinate.

In 1879, Alexander Bell created a factor we name the “telephone.” Before that expertise, an individual who needed to contact others needed to write a letter, place it within the postal service, and possibly wait a few weeks earlier than getting a reply. Now, with this new software, you possibly can crank up your phone, attain an individual referred to as an “operator,” and so they might join you in minutes to your pal or member of the family. Bell Labs made procrastination simpler.

My level?

Do not blame the tech toys of right now in your procrastinating. That is a fable. There has at all times been expertise that made it simpler to stay. Those instruments aren’t the problem; it’s how we use or abuse the expertise that promotes procrastination.

Ask your self, does your smartphone, your immediate messaging, and your Snap chats, make you extra productive? I think not. Those who know me know I nonetheless use and like my old style each day planner as a calendar. I discover (and I snicker when it occurs) that I can flip to a date on my schedule quicker than others utilizing digital calendars. Is the calendar tech useful? Sure, it may be. But by relying on a lot tech we will spend our time centered on a tech toy quite than dwelling life.

My pal,s step away from the tech toys. Do not use them as your fraudulent excuse for not getting issues accomplished. Instead, give attention to others, on relationships, on group. Make the world a greater place, not a digital area. It is claimed we have now 70, 80 years if we’re robust. So, ask your self, how will you allow a legacy that lasts for the betterment of the world?

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