Technology taking over our lives?

Here's a thought, with all the technology that we have at our fingertips--where many devices serve multiple functions--we are multi-tasking more than ever. While working on their homework on their computer, teens could be listening to music, checking their email, chatting via aim and facebook, texting their friends on their phone, eating and watching the TV in the background. This obviously leads to less productivity, more distractors, and possibly too much of a blending of work and play. For students that don't already have ADD, we are creating a world where students have such a stimulus overload that they are likely to struggle with the same problems people with ADD encounter. For those that already have ADD--good luck! Even the website/wiki/blog format of creating seems to almost encourage distraction because of hyperlinks. While it is great to have the information right at your fingertips (as opposed to relying on footnotes and citation chasing, which is probably fairly rare for students especially), it can be easy to get distracted clicking on the links, and then getting interested in something else, and forgetting what the true assignment or goal was. This poses issues in the classroom, because students seem to get bored and distracted easier. They expect the same sensory stimulation they are used too and want to find quick, fast answers with minimal effort. Although this encourages us to be more creative as teachers, I wonder how it affects students ability to work hard and to focus. Are we going to have to start teaching meditation in school in order to help kids learn how to concentrate on one thing at a time (such as reading). Reading effectively takes so much concentration in order to truly absorb it and I wonder if this skill is starting to get lost a bit.

Also, technology is also so pervasive in our lives that it has the unfortunate side affect of making us feel like we must be constantly available. It has become harder and harder to avoid people or put work off. There is an immediacy about things, and I think it causes people to be more impulsive, selfish/demanding and less inclined to plan ahead. Whereas things used to have to be planned in advance to insure coordination with a variety of people and to get things completed during the 9-5 work day, now people have 24 hour access to people via cell phones and email. People can monitor what you are doing through twitter and facebook status updates, and they can see when you are on facebook or gmail and chat with you right there. Because of this, people are more impatient and less likely to wait for you to get back to them when it is convenient for you. Instead they will find another medium to contact you until they are able to reach you (at their convenience, not yours). This in turn leads to impulsive behaviors, because people our coerced to make decisions or give opinions on things before they have had the time to fully look into matters. This will inevitably result in poor, uninformed decisions, at least some of the time. It is also harder for people who are indecisive (like me), because they feel more more pressure to act quickly, because that is what is valued by friends, family and professionals in our world. The 9-5 job also becomes less and less realistic, as it becomes harder and harder to get away from bringing work home or at least staring at in the face via email or phone. Add in the popular idea of "working from home" and things get even more complicated, with work and personal life interfering with each other and life becoming harder and harder to keep organized or separate, leading to more multi-tasking, less focus, and ultimately, less productivity.

There is less and less privacy and the line between personal and professional life gets blurrier and blurrier. As supervisors and teachers, how do we deem what is appropriate use of computer/work time anymore? Many people save documents in their email and share working documents on google docs, so disallowing "email" sites either through filters or through library policy becomes problematic. Also with privacy issues, coworkers and students can learn more about our personal lives than ever before if we allow to become our "facebook friends" or twitter followers. How do you keep your professional and personal life separated? Is the idea of not letting your personal life interfere with your work, or not talking about it with co-workers even possible in this situation?