Archive for 2010
University Social Media Ban Pt. 3
This is Maura Thomas from RegainYourTime.com. This is part three of my interview with Charles Palmer, the Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Entertainment & Learning Technologies, of Harrisburg University of Science & Technology. Please click the link at the top of the page to read the earlier parts.
Please click below to hear the transcript, and come back tomorrow and in the coming days to read or listen to the rest of the interview.
MT: I interrupted you when you said that you, you were talking about the focus groups and what the result of the focus groups was.
CP: Yeah, we had a number of students that said, “yeah, it didn’t really impact my day-to-day life.” We had a few students who said, “wow, this was really hard.” One student in particular that I spoke with a couple of times said this experience had shown him that he really does check FaceBook about ten…every 10 minutes. Whether through his phone or through his laptop, and that was eye-opening for him to really put it in perspective and say why…our big question was if you did not refrain from it, what was it that you felt the need…why did you feel the need to be so engaged in what was out there and being online and being on FaceBook. Some students openly admitted, some of it was ego. It was being the first to find something and post it to all their friends. Being on top of all the information that was going on in their circle. Just staying connected, and a number of students also said when they weren’t doing it they felt like they were missing something, that something was going on that they were not going to be able to respond to in 30 seconds. So that was very interesting for them. Academically, they were able to get access to everything that they were using in class. We use a content management…um, a learning management system so that didn’t really prevent them from getting access there, but a number of students found that on the opposite side of FaceBook is…at least in my eyes, is LinkedIn, which is a professional network. We had a number of students who said, “hey, wow, I miss LinkedIn…I miss being able to pose questions to my own community of people to get professional-based responses back, or to get feedback on my resume…” or those sorts of things. So we got the spectrum. Myself, I actually, I took it a little further and I cut it out for the entire week. Home, work, smartphone, I did nothing. No social media. And it was very interesting. I definitely got the, “oh my gosh, what’s going on in the world, I have no idea.” I found myself watching local news more often. Just to…I think Twitter is my primary news outlet.
MT: Mine too.
CP: For finding out what’s going on out there. And that was one of the things that I missed considerably. And I realize that I’m not a FaceBook person. I really didn’t miss FaceBook that much and since being back, since the ban, I very rarely post things on FaceBook. But Twitter, Twitter is my tool of choice.
MT: So were there any surprises, or any unexpected results or consequences?
CP: You know, in all honesty, all of it was a surprise. Because we really didn’t know what we would get out of it. Like I said, the students who made a revelation that, “oh my gosh, I’m using FaceBook so much…” I think that was a surprise to us, that students would make that relationship, that connection, between how much they were using it in their life. And another thing was a number of students saying, “wow, I check FaceBook in class very frequently. That’s probably not a good thing.” Faculty as well, seeing that…you know, we’re a laptop campus and when we see a student’s laptop open, we assume that they are following along with the lecture, or looking up additional information related to the lecture and to hear them, you know, spout that that’s not what they’re doing is very eye-opening for us and something that we need to think about as an institution as we build our culture.
MT: Does the university plan anything further as a result of the experiment?
CP: Yeah, we did this and now have said, “ok, there is something there.” We’re trying to plan something nine or ten months out where we’ll take a…this is all…we’re not sure what format this is going take, but we’ll do something a little more rigid, a little more procedural, with a lot of facts in place, and, you know, a little more scientific I guess you could say, of removing people from it and having questionnaires, and doing a lot more in-depth study. Definitely not the entire student body, we’ll probably get volunteers to do it but we’ll probably do it for a much longer period of time. We know, just reading some of the other research, it takes most humans and animals 21 days or so to change a behavior. I was surprised that within a week, we did have some people that would…at least…focused on their habits and were thinking differently about them, but we think in a longer time period we probably could get people to change how they use things and….but I don’t want to push it too far because we’re not sure if we want to change. I think really what we want to do is we want exposure, people to understand what’s out there, what’s available and how it affects them.
MT: So this realization that some students have about how much they check FaceBook in class, do you think that that realization came with…sort of the self-policing to say, “wow, I didn’t realize how much I was doing it, I probably shouldn’t be doing it?” Or do you think there were some students saying, “yeah, I do it all the time because class is boring and I’m so mad that their not letting me do it.” Or, or because, you know, “I can listen and check FaceBook at the same time, I can handle this and I don’t know why they’re not letting me.”
CP: I think the majority of students say, “hey I can handle this.” Or were opened up to the idea of the experiment, but said, you know, “it’s not really a problem for me.” And then we did have a number of students, or a couple of students in the focus group that said, “wow, you know what, I was dividing my attention. Now that I’m not dividing my attention, it really does make a difference in class. You know, I do feel more engaged and I am retaining some of this knowledge better.” I was very happy to hear students vocalize that. And it was a small number of students, but… and sometimes you take it with a grain of salt. These were students…students talking in a forum with other students and sometimes faculty as well, so you can always…actually no, I’m sorry, those were all done just with students, and a facilitator. But I’m always cautious when a student tells you something that you want to hear.
MT: Right.
CP: So it was good to hear a couple students say that and walk away at the end of the week saying, “hey, I think I’ve done a little more focus on my studies this week. Maybe shying away from FaceBook so much during class is a good idea and maybe I’ll check it between classes or lunch or something.”
Please come back tomorrow for part 4 of my interview with Charles Palmer of Harrisburg University. Thanks for reading!
What Happens When a Tech School Bans Social Media?
That’s right, Harrisburg University of Science & Technology did an experiment in the fall semester, banning social media on campus for a week. The goal was to encourage the students to think about their reliance on these communication tools and their impact on relationships. You can read more about the ban here.
The experiment was the subject of hundreds of national media stories, and of course I was dying to hear how it went! I had the pleasure of interviewing Charles Palmer, the Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Entertainment & Learning Technologies. We discussed:
- how the idea came about
- whether or not the goal of challenging people to think about their reliance on social media was achieved
- reactions from students and faculty
- if the experiment facilitated any unexpected results or consequences
- and if the University plans to take any further action based on the results of this experiment.
I’ve got both the audio and the text (similar to my interview with Yale Psychology Professor Dr. John Dovidio) and will post them in bite-sized articles, but I’ll put them all up at the same time next week. You are welcome to subscribe to this blog via email so you don’t have to remember to visit. Just enter your email address in the box in the top right corner of this page.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll come back to hear about the social-media-ban-experiment at Harrisburg University! In the meantime, I wish you a joyous holiday season, and a healthy and abundant 2011!
Top 3 Tips for Productive, Stress-Free Holidays
An unfortunate side-effect of all the merry-making, partying, giving, and time with friends and family, is the rapid rate by which our to-do list seems to grow in December. It often makes for increased stress, when this should be one time of year that we can just relax, be present, and enjoy.
Following are some practices I have collected over the years that have decreased the load on my wallet, my stress, and my peace of mind. I hope you find them helpful.
1. By far, the one thing that helps me the most with my Christmas shopping is a Note-taking application. Evernote is the one I currently use, and it has a desktop app, a web-based app, and an app for virtually every smartphone. I first started with a “Christmas List” note that contains a list of every person I buy gifts for. I also have a note called “gift ideas.” When someone casually mentions something they’d like, or when I have a stroke of genius about gift giving, I enter it on my “gift ideas” note. These two lists make it easy for me to shop all year round, which is easier on my budget than spending hundreds of dollars or more every December. As I purchase gifts, I enter what I bought for the person on the “Christmas List” note. You can also enter on the note the location in your house you are storing the gift, if that’s an issue for you. By Christmas (often much earlier in the year) my “Christmas List” note is full of everything I purchased, and for whom. I then add a year to the title of the note (“Christmas List 2010″) and then I copy the note with next year’s date (Christmas List 2011), delete the purchases, and I’m ready for next year. This helps me to remember what I’ve bought in the current year, and also allows me to look back at what I bought for each person in years’ past. Also, armed with ideas and individuals in mind, I usually just have a few little things to pick up in December, and I can get things wrapped and shipped early as well.
2. Take advantage of after Christmas sales. This is the best time to buy decorations, wrapping paper, and cards for yourself, and holiday-themed gifts to give to others next year. Tree ornaments and pretty holiday food accessories (tins, plates, bowls, jars, etc) make great gifts for neighbors, teachers, hair-stylist, etc., especially when they are filled with home-made
treats. After Christmas is a great time to stock up on these for next year. Typical baked goods are yummy. Also consider jars or bottles full of infused olive oil, flavored syrup for coffee, or homemade liquors. Most of these are easy and the recipes can be found with a quick visit to your favorite search engine. Don’t forget to note your purchases on your “Christmas List” note.
3. What’s the best gift for the person who has everything? There are many ways to offer heartfelt gifts that truly give back, are easy on your budget, and don’t contribute to “more stuff.” This could include a “coupon” to cook dinner or babysit for someone, or agree to forego gifts to each other and spend time together instead, like going out to dinner or lunch. Another idea 
is a charitable donation in their name. Many charities make it easy to offer a lovely gift or gift card that represents a donation to a worthy cause. One of my favorites for children is the Save the Manatee Club, where your donation to “adopt” a manatee provides a child with a full-color picture and story of the life of “their” manatee. Another for adults and children alike is Kiva.org, where your recipient can choose an entrepreneurial venture in a developing country that they’d like to support. You can make a donation in someone’s name via Greater Good or directly at most charities’ websites, or you can buy a gift that supports women working to rise out of poverty at Global Girlfriend or other fair-trade sites such as Ten Thousand Villages.
I hope you found these ideas helpful, and I’d love to hear your favorite practices for ensuring the holidays are enjoyable and stress free. Please feel free to share them in the comments. Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!
Focus? Did Someone Say Focus?
If you’ve spent some time on this site you may have realized that I spend a lot of time reading and sharing the latest research and studies about focus, attention, and productivity. My friend Carlon, the man behind the very entertaining blog, Don’t Step in the Poop, has written a lighthearted and probably very familiar look at the challenges of focus. I have reposted it here with his permission, but I highly recommend you head on over to Don’t Step in the Poop for other great reads. Thanks to Carlon for his willingness to share his words of wisdom, and thank YOU for stopping by!
Focus or Fail, by Carlon Haas
To achieve anything: from your big goals to writing a single blog post, it takes focus. Without developing a near mythic sense of focus, you are likely to fail in EVERYTHING you do. The lack of focus is what undoes most people. 
People tell me I’m too focused. Some of the guys on the 4th floor are terrified of the sheer focus and intensity I bring to every task I do.
It’s like this song I once heard on the radio when I was driving to see my mother. She lives in a town that the GPS doesn’t recognize. She told me it was great living out there. But I didn’t see how mowing your grass with a tractor was so great.
My mom used to give me crap about all sorts of stuff when I was younger. I don’t quite remember what she told me because I never really listened to what she was saying anyway. But it had something to do with how my room had lava lamps.
Have you seen the price of lava lamps these days? Geez. Retro is pretty damn expensive!
It’s amazing how much we pay for things that remind us of cheap crap we had when we were young.
I think that’s the feeling that built eBay. Now, THAT’s a business model you should look at. You can make so much money that you can be like the ex-CEO who’s running for governor of California.
That reminds me, when Arnie is gone, will he go back into the movies?
I really liked it when he did classics like “Commando.”
I’m hoping he’ll team up with Jesse Ventura again to do something like Predator.
Maybe it can be about those drones that fly over Afghanistan. Arnie can be this guy who controls the drones and Jesse could be a crazy guy who gets a drone and plans to use it to destroy his ex-boss’ house.
That would be cool as ice.
Wasn’t that the name of a movie with Vanilla Ice?
Is he still boxing?
Not that I care. Just wondering. I thought of him because he did some thing with Ron Jeremy, And, you see, now there’s some shutdown in the porn industry.
Porn.
That reminds me. I have to be somewhere.
Researcher Interview #1 Part 5 (Conclusion)
Click to Listen (6 1/2 minutes)
MT: This is Maura Thomas from RegainYourTime.com. Thanks for listening to the fifth and final part of my interview with Dr. John Dovidio, psychology professor at Yale University. You can see the previous posts by clicking the link at the top of this page and prior pages. And if you’re interested in reading up on the current research, please visit the “Research and Resources” page of this website.
What do you think about the danger that ah…I’ve read some…some research is suggesting that there is a real benefit in the…the quiet moments that we used to have, the time in between things…waiting in line, or even sitting at a red light, or…you know, just the moments in between other things that we…we used to have an opportunity for our mind to just wander and that time was…our brains sometimes used to process what we had heard, and to create connections among things and really where the learning happens. And now there is some fear that we don’t have those moments of quiet anymore because in every moment of stillness, we whip out our iPhone and check our email, or check our Facebook status, or jump on the internet, or play a game on our phone. And now that we have all this…this stimulation in our pocket, do you think that there’s a danger to losing those moments of..of “mind wandering” that we used to have?
JD: There is a lot of evidence that suggests that ah…part of learning is taking the time to consolidate, to reflect upon things, to make sure that what we know just has to reverberate enough in our head for it to stay there. That’s a simple way of saying it. There’s a lot of work that also shows that there are these times that we develop insights by ah…this kind of…not actively thinking about something, but different pieces, or different elements to the solution of a problem just appear to us through insight, and not in a logical fashion. And this insight comes usually during those periods following a period of consolidation and reflection, where you basically have to see, you have to sort of become inwardly focused to start thinking about the thoughts, and then those thoughts can become, can come to coalesce in some unique, synthetic way that becomes a creative insight. And if we’re always focused outward, we’re not going to do as much of that…we’re going to rely on creativity coming from the outside rather than from the inside. On the other hand, to give you the balance of it, is that the other thing about humans is that when we begin to feel we’ve reached a limit, we almost reflexively back off to gain at least enough solitude to be able to regroup, consolidate, and move forward. So the question becomes, not that we’re not going to have those moments of solitude, we just may have fewer and fewer of them as we go on. But if people need time to think, it’s not like we can’t turn off the machines. It’s not that we don’t go into a shower, where we don’t have our, our cell phone on and our computer on. Maybe when we start losing those private moments we’re in more trouble (laughing). But people will probably structure their day so that they’ll have those private moments at different times.
MT: Do you think that we’ll continue to recognize that we need those moments, and take them? I have people tell me all the time that their best ideas come to them in the shower, just for the exact reason that you just said. And one client even told me that he…he got some crayons…water soluble crayons, so he could write on the shower tiles because that’s when he has his best ideas and that’s what I told him, it’s because it’s the only time that you’re not interrupted. So..but…but that was a surprise to him. You know when I said that, he hadn’t thought about it. “Wow, you’re right,” he said. “Those are the only moments of quiet that I ever get.” So to me that..that raises a concern that…especially children who are constantly exposed to all the stimulation…while they may be capable of…of stepping back and taking those moments, they might not recognize that they need them.
JD: Yeah, I mean that’s…the biggest problem is with kids. I mean part of…of growing up has to do with seeking new stimulations and new information. And so kids tend not to be as reflective anyway. They…they tend not to…even if you give them that free time, doesn’t mean that they’re doing it…using the same kind of consolidation that an adult would…the way an adult would handle that. If in fact you…you don’t even allow them that time, then they’re going to be less likely to be able to do that when they become adults because they won’t know what to do with it. And so I think…again, the issue is probably…it’s not having all the media available. It has to do with things like, training people when to use it, when not to use it, having, you know…I think as adults enforcing a quiet time, a non-electronic time, is not a bad thing. Kids will resent it. Part of what we need to teach kids anyway is a little bit of self-control. “You can’t do what you want, when you want, all the time.” But part of being a kid is wanting to do what you want, whenever you want, as soon as you want.
MT: Right.
JD: So, I mean that’s the age-old challenge we have and now it’s just, the electronic media, which is more seductive, just makes it a little bit more complicated and much more difficult to do.
MT: Hmmm, great point. Well I want to be respectful of your time so while I feel like I could discuss this with you forever I will…I will call it here and say thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. Dr. John Dovidio from Yale University, thank you very much.
JD: Well thank you!
MT: And thank you, for visiting, and be sure to check this space again for future interviews with researchers in the fields of attention, multitasking, productivity, and technology. This is Maura Thomas with RegainYourTime.com.
Researcher Interview #1 Part 4
Click to Listen (4 1/2 minutes)
MT: This is Maura Thomas from RegainYourTime.com. Thanks for coming back to hear part four of my interview with Dr. John Dovidio, psychology professor at Yale University. You can see the previous posts by clicking the link at the top of this page and prior pages.
…That’s actually a really great perspective. I talk to a lot of people often who are becoming a little bit overwhelmed with the idea that, you know, “there is just too much and I can’t catch up.” And I…I run into people every day who are deciding, in fact they even put it in these terms, “I’m trying to decide what my limit is. And…you know, ok I did email, and now I’ve done Facebook, but I’m not going to do Twitter! That’s just where I’m drawing the line, and anything else that comes out, I’m just all done.” (laughing)
JD: (laughing) Mmm hmmm.
MT: So…and there certainly is an age component to this. But it’s…it’s really interesting to hear you say…talk about how humans have overcome this throughout history and…and…how we’re actually really good at it, and perhaps people should…take heart in that…in that idea.
JD: Oh yeah, I’m mean, we’ve…we’ve overcome worse!
MT: Sure. Sure.
JD: (laughing) We could overcome quite a bit!
MT: (laughing) Right.
JD: But I do…you know, at the same time, I think you’re also right by saying…and the people you quoted are right by saying, you’ve got to be cautious, realizing that whatever benefits might…benefits might be coming with the software and hardware development that we see in communication, we have to always understand that there is probably something that’s going to be lost because we just have a limited amount of time, we have a limited capacity for attention, …we have a limited capacity for being able to think and make decisions. Those are the bounds of being human, just like any other animal. And so how do we actually teach people to use a lot of these media in a way that works to their benefit so that they don’t become overwhelmed or develop those habits so strongly that they’re hard to reverse.
You won’t remember this, and I really don’t remember it personally, but when television came in, you know, that changed everything, right? People said, “well television is taking away from human relations. People are no longer talking to one another, they are no longer looking face-to-face, what they’re doing is they’re sitting side-by-side, and the quality of their relationships is going to go down, and tv is going to be the end of everything because people are going to become sedentary, they’re going to become passive, they’re going to need more stimulation. And they’re going to lose sight between what’s real and what’s everyday life.” And to some extent that was true, but then people adjust to it and now we look at tv and we see that as “how…how benign and passive.”
MT: That was part four of my interview with Dr. John Dovidio, psychology professor at Yale University. I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for the fifth and final portion of the interview where I’ll ask Dr. Dovidio about the value of reflection and quiet moments. Also, if you’re interested in reading up on the current research, please visit the Research and Resources page of this website. This is Maura Thomas from RegainYourTime.com. Thanks for visiting!
(Click here for the conclusion of the interview.)
Researcher Interview #1, Part 2
For part 1 of this interview, click here.
Click to Listen (5 1/2 minutes)
MT: This is Maura Thomas from RegainYourTime.com. Welcome to the second part of my interview with Dr. John Dovidio, psychology professor at Yale University. You can see the previous post by clicking the link at the top of this page.
MT: It’s an interesting point that you bring up about evolutionary adjustments because there is some recent research talking about how the brain is apparently much more plastic than we had originally thought and while 10 or 15 years ago, scientists used to think that things became a bit more static at a young age, now it seems like there are dramatic changes going on well into the teens and even early 20′s. So what do you think about the potential for children who are growing up in this fast-paced, multitasking, especially media and technology multitasking environment, what do you think the odds are that they will learn to adapt and while studies have shown that multitasking both decreases the quality with which things are done and increases the time it takes to do those things, perhaps these kids, if their minds are in fact a lot more plastic than we thought and they do have the ability to adapt, what do you think their prospects are for whether or not they’ll be better at multitasking than adults are today?
JD: Yeah, I think…you know, the brain is built to be adaptive so, it’s really designed to enable us to adapt to all sorts of new circumstances including multitasking. Your point is a good one, that there is a fundamental difference between the way the brain works for younger people, through adolescence, through early adulthood, and for older people. So the younger people, they’re actually seeking as much information and stimulation as they can get. It’s all about acquiring information, and for older people it’s more about consolidating information. So the brain makes the switch. So what multimedia presentations do is provide lots of information. And so…people still have a limited amount of capacity for how much they can actually understand at any one time, but people can develop new ways of managing that information so that they can process more information than they ever could before. So there are limits to how much stimulation people will be able to benefit from before it becomes overload. But you could probably expect that over time, with experience, and over generations, also as the technology changes to become more palatable and easily digested by people, that I would expect people would be able to adjust to all this different multitasking and become better at it. However that doesn’t mean that’s going to be an infinite growth. It just limits to what people can process at any one time and anything more than that is going to become disruptive, distract our attention, and be counter-productive in terms of the learning and in terms of all sorts of social relationships and activities.
MT: And so not only “not infinite,” but perhaps not immediate? So if I heard you correctly, I think what you’re saying is that people will adapt to the technology and to the fast-paced, multitasking environment that technology has created, but it may not be the next generation, the people who are teenagers now, but perhaps further generations out?
JD: Right. One of the big problems…So people adapt both individually in terms of experience and in terms of generational change much slower than technology develops. So one of the problems is that technology keeps changing so rapidly that no human being can keep up with that at a sustained rate. So…but what will happen is each generation, each person is going to push the envelope a little bit in terms of what they know and what they can process and how many things they can handle at one time, but they’re just going to hit a limit, and it’s likely that the next generation will have greater capacity to do that, but they’ll hit their limit. And like I said, the problem, though, is that they’re going to hit their limit far sooner than what’s going to be out there in terms of technology. The technology is always going to be offering more than they actually can handle at any one time.
This is Maura Thomas from RegainYourTime.com. Thanks for listening to part two of my interview with Dr. John Dovidio, psychology professor at Yale University. I hope you’ll come back on Monday to hear or read about the differences in fractured attention due to conditions like ADD, versus due to our media multitasking environment. Also, if you’re interested in reading up on the current research, please visit the “Research and Resources” page of this website. Thanks for visiting!
(Click here for Part 3.)