Weapon of mass distraction

The title of this post is taken from the text in an article from Time magazine, called “The Off-line American“, about John McCain’s low level of IT literacy and it’s potential implications for his campaign and presidency if elected.

What I found more interesting though, was the suggestion that for all the potential of the Internet to provide a vast information resource, there’s often an inability for the average user to manage that information.  With too much content to efficiently find what you’re looking for, does this make the resource worthless?

The author mentions a study by Microsoft and the University of Illinois, which “found that it takes, on average, 16 min. 33 sec” for someone to get back to work after being interrupted by an email.  That’s one hour of productivity lost for every 4 emails received (assuming that the person is 1) notified when an email arrives, and 2) opens and reads the message.

The article goes on to mention the Information Overload Research Group, founded by Microsoft, Google and IBM, who are trying to find a solution to the problem.