NYTimes.com: Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime

“Instead of having long relaxing breaks, like taking two hours for lunch, we have a lot of these micro-moments,”...

“People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,”[Here's what people interviewed in the story said about using devices all the time:]

...“I wanted to take advantage of the little gap,”...“It’s become a demand. Not necessarily a demand of the customer, but a demand of my head,”...

[...From rat studies] "when people keep their brains busy with [constant] digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas...

"A [human] study found that people learned significantly better after a walk in nature than after a walk in a dense urban environment, suggesting that processing a barrage of information leaves people fatigued."

"Flurry, a company that tracks the use of apps, has found that mobile games are typically played for 6.3 minutes"

[...However,] "...Some researchers say that whatever downside there is to not resting the brain, it pales in comparison to the benefits technology can bring in motivating people to sweat."

OK, so I'll have to admit that while reading this article, my iphone was at my side, counting down the minutes I had available. I was wearing my pager, which luckily didn't go off. And I didn't interrupt my reading to play a game for 6.2 minutes, either (!) TECHNOLOGY | August 25, 2010 Your Brain on Computers: Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime By MATT RICHTEL Time without digital input can allow people to learn better or come up with new ideas. See also my previous post on a similar article: http://seattletacomatom.blogspot.com/2010/06/nytimescom-hooked-on-gadgets-and-paying.html