The ‘always on’ culture

Published in Sci-Tech World

What would you call a person who, while waiting for his amusement park ride to take off, whips out his mobile phone and starts checking his emails? Also, which term can be used to describe a housewife who daily reads Google News on her PC while running back and forth between the kitchen and her room? Is addiction an understatement for people who check their emails about ten times in five hours?

An article in the New York Times says that there is an all-encompassing term which comprehensively describes all of the above, and more, conditions — all of the aforementioned people are apparently suffering from Online Compulsive Disorder or simply, OCD.

OCD is characterised by an impulse to connect to the internet even while doing the most ‘offline’ of activities, like talking to a person, sitting in a classroom or reading a book. Interestingly, this term has actually made it to the Merrium-Webster’s Open Dictionary where it has been described as “addiction to web-based activity such as checking e-mail.”

A sophisticated term that is used for those suffering from OCD is multi-taskers, since they are essentially trying to accomplish more than one task in the minimum possible time. But more often than not, these multi-taskers actually end up accomplishing very little. This is because, according to David E. Meyer, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, people trying to do two tasks at once hamper their own productivity. They would finish both tasks faster and efficiently if they did them separately and focused on each one in turn.

This is actually true. If you have ever tried to finish an assignment online and chat with a friend on MSN Messenger you will know what the downfalls of multi-tasking are. Either you end up taking longer than usual to finish the assignment or you end up annoying your friend really badly. Same goes for whenever you are reading an article online and trying to listen to streaming audio through your headset. Either you will have to read the article twice to get the gist of it, or you will be wondering how the song finished so early.

However, despite these downfalls, the ‘always on’ culture is on the rise. This can be gauged from the fact that the aforementioned article was picked up by webmasters and bloggers, who then had the time of their lives ripping it apart. There were some who heavily criticised Prof Meyer and called OCD as something that they considered beneficial for themselves. Others blatantly denied that there was anything as absurd as OCD. There was a vast majority, though, which actually did agree with him and his research, and quoted numerous examples in support of the phenomenon.

A few posts and comments from such blogs are definitely worth quoting here. Irish journalist and teacher Eamonn Fitzgerald put some pertinent questions in his blog . “Are ‘always on’ and ‘multitasking’ responsible for what is now being referred to by some medical specialists as “online compulsive disorder”, and by others as “pseudo-attention deficit disorder? Do bloggers exhibit traits that suggest they are addicted to “the constant stimulation provided by incoming data”?

“I’d say the answer is, yes. But that is the price we pay for incorporating these new, powerful technologies into our lives. The next generation will be better able to deal with the pace of change, and if it turns out that they have developed shorter attention spans, then they will need to be given the kind of tasks that will not produce the frustration associated with long-term projects. The physical craving for short bursts of info stimulation, which is seen as a negative now, could well end up being harnessed as a driver of creativity. Those who prove that they can thrive on the stress of managing constant information might well end up in jobs that we cannot even conceive of now.”

Justin Blanton, , a law student working for an IP firm, wrote about how he needed to be continuously connected. “It’s the constant fear of becoming bored or complacent and the ever-present feeling that I need to learn as much as possible that drives me. Case in point: as I read the said article, I checked my e-mail three times, replied to two, began typing this post, and helped a friend set up a weblogging tool — all because of the slight delay incurred while going to the next page(s) of the article.”

About multitasking being non-productive, he had to say the following, “Honestly, I think that the whole multitasking argument presented in the article is moot simply because different people operate, well, differently. The fact is, some jobs and lifestyles absolutely demand multitasking, in which case the word becomes a slight misnomer as it no longer evokes the idea of doing multiple jobs at once, but rather doing the job, which happens to require you to divide your attention.”

What has actually fuelled the “always on” culture is the cable internet. The 24-hour connectivity that it offers without the burden of the land-line being engaged is a great boost. There was a time when certain hours were set apart for internet surfing and connecting at any other time (especially at the peak time of phone calls) was unheard of. Now, cable net is so common that there is virtually no concept of setting aside any time for internet surfing and email.

All the time is now at the disposal of an average internet user. So checking emails five times in an hour is no problem at all. Add to that the convenience of desktop email notifiers, which you can glance at whenever you pass the computer. As soon as you see it blinking, you sit down and open the browser. So in reality, you are never really offline in any sense.

But of course there are downfalls. Online Compulsive Disorder is really a more sophisticated cover for internet addiction, if you really think about it. Addiction of any sort, even if it is in the form of unlimited connectivity, is never really a very desirable thing, because there is a life outside the computer and the cellphone, which is just as important. Being “always on” should definitely not substitute the very vital things that are part of an “offline” world. So if you think you can strike a healthy balance, go ahead and be a part of this culture.

But if you think you will destroy your offline world simply because it is way too much effort to drag yourself away from your PC, then you would be well-advised to practice caution, get a dialup connection and only stay online as long as it is necessary.