The ever-increasing speed and power of technology allow people to effortlessly toggle back and forth between tasks. The wireless revolution has only accelerated this trend, turning every laptop computer into a lightning-quick, mobile communications hub. Attention is increasingly at a deficit in all facets of society -- the workplace, the classroom, the city council meeting and the social occasion.
Universities, for example, invested small fortunes in wireless Internet only to come to an alarming conclusion: Access designed to boost learning quickly became an irresistible distraction. University of Michigan law school professor Don Herzog said students were hunting for sublets, reading the newspaper, checking stock quotes or sending e-mail during class.
The law school blocked wireless access in classrooms. When that didn't work, some professors banned laptops. The reaction from students was mixed: Some said they were grateful to be able to concentrate, others were sullen, Herzog said.
As technology becomes cheaper and more powerful, the debate is intensifying about how far universities should go in restricting its use in classrooms. Most graduate schools including the UCLA Anderson School of Management let professors decide whether they should limit laptop use. More than 75% of professors at UCLA's law school shut off Internet access in their classrooms, said Sean Pine, the law school's chief information officer.
Late last year, Jeremy Zawodny, who works with outside software developers at Yahoo Inc., attended his first "no laptop" meeting at the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet company.
"I looked around in amazement that no one had their laptops open," he said. "I try not to bring my laptop to meetings because the pull is strong if I am not interested in something or if the topic doesn't directly involve me."
After attending a few such meetings, Zawodny blogged about it earlier this month. He said he felt conflicted. On the one hand, he said, he was tempted to skip meetings if colleagues divided their attention. On the other, it's "absolutely ridiculous that we have to mandate common courtesy and force people off their laptops long enough to have a useful meeting," he wrote.
Zawodny's post got a thumbs-up from Nelson Minar, a former Google Inc. engineer, who says supervisors can be the worst offenders.
