Does technology help or hurt your productivity?

I found myself standing against the back wall of a huge lecture theatre in the Earth and Ocean Sciences Building on UBC’s Vancouver campus. The auditorium’s seats were filled with hundreds of teacher candidates—an audience that I would have imagined to be quite aware of issues of concentration and attention. Yet, the lecture theatre was filled with distracted people.

These are people who will be addressing classrooms themselves, in a matter of months, and then going on to careers that are based upon the premise of standing before people and delivering information. But from my vantage point in the back of the room, looking down upon a sea of laptop screens and smartphones, I only saw a dozen or so people actually taking notes.

The rest of the audience were reading articles, browsing Facebook, and sending messages on their phones. Many were doing both at once. The same tools that enable them to absorb and discover new information were distracting them from the actual live presentation going on before them. They were consumed by their devices.

This is a scene that we’re all familiar with: the distracted pedestrian wandering clueless, gaze locked on their smartphone; the student who sits in front of you and browses Reddit through class—distracting not only themselves, but every person seated behind; and the constant multitasker, who sits before the television with their laptop and smartphone, accomplishing nothing in several different ways.

I believe that we should be making a conscious choice when we open our laptops, take out our smartphones, or use any other device that offers similar services, and that decision is: Will this device enable or hinder my productivity? Sure, you may be able to take notes faster on your laptop, but you’re also presented with the temptation to check your email and Facebook. If you can’t compete with this desire, your productivity is going to suffer.

How are you using your devices? Have you ever found that they’re using you?

Check out this article by New York Magazine about the modern dangers of technology.