1. Effect on personal productivity of personal communication devices

People become more Productive

• Become more efficient in terms of producing more work in less time, because technology is designed to reduce the hard work and produce calculations and other work faster, therefore less time is needed to do more work.

People may become less productive

• More accessibility to distractions, thus decreasing personal productivity because people could tend to get more amused with other things than the actual work, therefore loosing time.

2. The psychological consequences of having permanent contact

Jose MillaRoberto de la Guardia

Effect on personal productivity of PCDs

• Are mobile phones distracting?• Laptops distracting?

No e-mail day

• Some companies believed that an over-dependence on e-mail was damaging productivity.

• An approach to help workers who need to concentrate for long periods of time

• A company felt the trial had been a resounding success, with better teamwork, happier customers and quicker problem solving.

• However:• Not everyone is convinced that switching e-

mail off is the answer to stress and lack of productivity in the office.

The psychological consequences of having permanent contact

• “Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users, an eminent scientist has warned.”

• “Sites such as Facebook are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred.”

• “exposure to computer games, instant messaging, chat rooms and social networking sites could leave a generation with poor attention spans.”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E8HRGUiOn0

• Addiction to text messaging and emailing could be another form of mental illness.

• Dr Jerald Block, said there were four symptoms: – suffering from feelings of withdrawal when a

computer cannot be accessed– an increased need for better equipment– need for more time to use it– and experiencing the negative repercussions of their

addiction.