In the early aughts, I had an English professor a few years shy of retirement who forbade our class from using technology for term papers. It wasn’t just that she mistrusted whatever information we’d gather after typing “Moby Dick albatross” wouldn’t be peer reviewed. “Oh, you’ll go looking for one thing, and then click on another, and then end up playing checkers,” she’d warn and circle her hands over both temples like it all caused her psychic trauma. At the time, it seemed silly but all these years later as an adult, I’m definitely feeling her pain: something I’ve come to think of as tech reflux.
It’s killing your focus
Maybe this sounds familiar in your work life, too. You’re diving into a project, the motors start turning, and then — ding! — a colleague asks a question. You indicated you were busy on Slack but forgot to sedate GChat. It’s not urgent but it’ll just take a second, so you go looking for the answer. Except where is it? You thought it was in your e-mail (which, oof, is a journey from inbox zero), but it must’ve been shared over Slack. You flip to that tab, resist the enticing updates on the #cats channel, and finally find what you need hiding in your DM’s — right before another depressing election update blows up your phone. Thirty minutes later, despite your best intentions, you’ve typed two words of that proposal, your colleague is checking in, and you’ve succumbed to the thread of kittens cuddling capybaras. Your attention was thwarted by tech reflux.