Legal Research

E-mail and the IQ

By Evan VanDyk

Grumpy folks like me are always complaining about how the kids aren’t learning anything in school these days. That may or may not be true, but it turns out there’s another culprit: Blackberries.

According to a recent study, some psychologists have found that sending text messages results in a temporary decline in IQ of up to 10 points. This is on par with the effects of sleep deprivation, and much worse than using marijuana. The researchers labelled the effect “infomania”.

Symptoms of infomania include lost productivity, an inability to concentrate, and rudeness in the workplace. As far as I know there is no cure, but apparently the symptoms can be managed by checking your e-mail less often and turning your Blackberry off during meetings. Which is easier said than done, since the study showed that although 90% of Britons think answering e-mails during a meeting is extremely rude, one third of them also believe that it is acceptable to do so, and one fifth say they do it themselves.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on April 08, 2008 (boomark / email).