It used to be called information overload but after reading Jonny’s latest post on the Industrial IT Group blog I have been educated, updated you might even say, that the current term is actually frazzing.*

Frazzing, short for frantic multitasking, refers to a form of mental channel switching caused by all the distractions we face today: cell phones, sms, e-mails, and loads of web interactions. We should be warned, or so they tell us, about the danger of new technology and the ways in which they disrupt our working life.

Jonny, you make an interesting observation that a CEO of a tech firm, quoted as saying,

“There’s plenty of technology. There’s way too much technology, in our opinion, and certainly too much complexity in technology.”

may in fact be a closet luddite. The argument is – that if people don’t get, or cannot handle, the technology you are secretly against it. Of course the underlying argument is that the luddite’s are wrong and technology is good. You continue:

Yes, when people are trying to get more done by doing several things at once, it often means that they are able to do nothing particularly well. Technology that is supposed to make us more productive by keeping us connected may only enhance this problem. Then again, technology may be something else than a productivity tool? If people are bored at work and editing their Facebook profile all day, maybe the problem isn’t Facebook?

Despite the fact that I recently posted a diatribe on web 2.0 in general and Facebook in particular I agree with you. The problem is not the technology but rather our ability to interact and control it (do not interpret this as a slippery slope – the same argument cannot be used for Cocaine).

The technology is useful and the way in which we interact it defines the way in which we are capable of handling technology without frazzing. But I still have a question: Why aren’t you on Facebook? Your argument would have been more potent if he were there…

So Jonny, choosing to handle technology by not using it…. isn’t that a bit…. well…. you know…. Luddite?

—

* the problem of information overload or frazzing is old and established. In 1984 Jacob Palme wrote an article entitled: “You have 134 unread mail! Do you want to read them now?” In Computer-Based Message Services, H. T. Smith (Ed.), IFIP Proceedings, Elsevier North-Holland, New York.