Are we losing our ability to think deeply -- interesting WSJ & BusinessWeek articles

I've been thinking a lot about information overload, especially after coming back from vacation. I've got no answer or solution to how to best handle information overload -- despite asking my so-called followers on Twitter.

Meanwhile, L. Gordon Crovitz at the Wall St. Journal wrote an interesting article, "Unloading Information Overload: Are we losing our ability to think deeply?" As he wrote, "Consider the rest of this article an 800-word test of your ability to maintain attention."

I can wait.

Did you read it?

There are days (like this one) when I am convinced all our technology is undermining our ability to think.

Of course, there are some in the tech sector who see a simple solution. No, it's not turning off IM, limiting time on email. The solutions is (drum roll, please) more technology. Check out "May We Have Your Attention, Please? With the workplace ever more full of distractions, researchers are developing tools to keep us on task," a recent BusinessWeek article.

Here are some interesting stats:

• 28% -- Percentage of day average U.S. worker losses to interruptions.
• $650 billion -- The annual toll interruptions take on productivity.
• U.S. knowledge workers apparently can focus on one item for only three minutes before turning to something else.

For those who have read this far, thanks!

On the other hand, I've got to get back to work.

How Fox Plays Hardball -- Fox News Media Relations, that is

Fascinating story by David Carr about the challenges when Fox News is part of a reporter's new beat. Check out "When Fox News Is the Story."

The article lays out the aggressive, political-campaign-like tactics that Fox News deploys against reporters who it thinks has written negative articles about the channel. My favorite tidbit: According to Carr, despite repeated calls by Timesman Jacques Steinberg for a recent article, "the public relations people at Fox News did not return his requests for comment. (In a neat trick, while they were ignoring his calls, they e-mailed his boss asking why they had not heard from him.)"

The reason for playing hardball? According to the head of Fox News' Media Relations, Brian Lewis: “Yes, we are an aggressive department in a passive industry, and believe me, the executives and talent appreciate it,” Mr. Lewis said, adding that with the 24-hour news cycle and the proliferation of blogs, a new kind of engagement and activism was required."

The article is filled with anecdotes about how Fox News media relations operates. An interesting coda is that the online version of the article has a correction in it: Carr had referenced TV Guide as being owned by News Corp. when in fact News Corp completed its sale in May.

How Much Longer Will "Front Page, Above the Fold" Be an Important Designation?

Just described the significance of an article in that it was published on the front page, above the fold.

For traditional PR, that kind of placement in a newspaper would be a home run. You couldn't do better than that for a newspaper.

Don't get me wrong, getting that kind of placement in a newspaper would be a great, but for some clients, getting your news on a key website's home page and highlighted in the publication's newsletter is a home run.

I wonder how long that "front page above the fold" will be a relevant designation.

What Does It Take to be a Blogger Star?

Check out "So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?" from The New York Times by Paul Boutin.

It includes some interesting tips, including:

• Write about what you want to write about, in your own voice, according to Ted Dziuba, a software engineer at Persai.
• “Blog about your passions. Don’t blog about what you think your audience wants. Post because you have something you are dying to write about,” according to Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

What Are You Doing Reading Blogs on the Fourth of July?

As Matthew Broderick said at after the credits in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off": "Are you still here?"

Turn off the computer, go outside, and spend time with family and friends.

The blogs will still be here tomorrow -- though I'd suggest waiting until Monday to go back online; that's my plan, anyway.

Happy Fourth!

When Social Media Stars Complain...About Information Overload

When people whose careers are based on social media/Web 2.0 start complaining about information overload, what does that mean for people who have, um, real jobs?

Anna Marie Cox, the former Wonkette blogger, recently wrote a Tweet that struck home with me on what is otherwise supposed to be a vacation week:

"I have 390 unread msgs, 91 friend requests, 2 deadlines, an unholy outstanding expense acct & a blog to feed. Def time to clean the kitchen."

Social media certainly makes it easier to keep in touch than traditional media, but it also significantly adds to my information overload.

I probably shouldn't post this -- but -- I am checking email during vacation as a defensive measure. Which means some people will expect me to respond to their emails. (Of course, I could claim that I posted this entry earlier in June, had it scheduled to be published today, and once on vacation decided against checking email. Ya never know.)

Yet if I don't check email, I will be inundated with a thousand unread messages -- and it's hard to relax knowing that's what awaits you after vacation.

I'd love to hear better suggestions as to how to cope with information overload.

Two things I hate about Websites

Here are two things I hate about Websites:

1. So-called Welcome screens with ads on them instead of the content you want. Is that really the kind of welcome you'd want? This being the web, if you had really wanted information on that product, you would have clicked onto that site first. Imagine the reaction if flight attendants greeted you that way, "Welcome to the 6:30am Delta Shuttle, but first check out stuff you don't really want." (Actually, that could be a great new revenue stream for airlines.) A real welcome would be getting me to the actual content -- and fast. A 15-second ad is waaay too long. If I had wanted that kind of wait, I'd go back to dial-up.
   
2. Sites that automatically load audio or video without giving you the option to listen to their audio or video -- and then make it hard to mute. I mean, it's one thing when you go to YouTube, and are expecting that video content. But when you go to a magazine's website and get bombarded with loud content -- that can be extremely disruptive when you're on a conference call, or so I'm told.
   

I will not identify some of the offending sites -- but only because there are too many of them.