Does e-mail damage your IQ?
 

Has anyone esle seen the research that hit the UK press today? It purports to show that heavy users of e-mail and text have their IQ reduced at least temporarily. See here or here for example.

Does that mean that users of this forum are not the sharpest tools in the shed?!

Answers on a postcard, please...

Perchance I'm being pedantic, but methinks that people who utilize e-mail on a basis of high frequency do not experience a change of their IQ level into a stratum that is lower than it was previously. ;)

The reason I say this, is that IIRC, IQ is a measure of your intelligence.
* These articles seem to suggest that because of information overload, your brain shuts down. That I can fully understand -- there are times at work that I have so many things going on that I get forgetful and/or have trouble concentrating.
* However, this is more a reflection of my mental altertness at that point in time -- not that I have become less intelligent all the time.

I was going to start a thread on this very subject when I heard about it on the news this morning, but I didn't have time earlier.

I think there could be a certain amount of truth to this theory, although I'd like to believe it's just a temporary situation and does not cause permanent damage.

Anyway, I haven't got time to say more about the matter right now as I'm busy texting ;)

_Malc

Re: Does e-mail damage your IQ?
 

only if you are using FASTMAIL today!! he he he.:eek: :D

Re: Re: Does e-mail damage your IQ?
 

...and if your EMD ID is (was) drclaudiamd. :p :D

ye red me mind!:)

It seems to me like the researchers are stating that frequent use of email/texting can lead to difficulty concentrating, like a temporary case of ADHD. The IQ tests were used simply to measure the effects of the distraction, not the actual IQ of the taker. I think the research indicates that heavy email and text users can become distracted from other tasks (not exactly news IMHO) and that people who allow themselves to fall into an obsessive/compulsive habit of checking their mail constantly or using SMS frequently could be permanently inflicting ADHD-like symtpoms on themselves.

The author of the article introduces it with the premise that email damages IQ, but the actual content of the research seems to indicate that heavy email use damages your attention span, which effects how you perform on any intelligence-based task that requires concentration (like an IQ test) or any task really that requires concentration. Some of the researchers' quotes make the same silly intuitive leaps without any real evidence to support their "added" claim of a real IQ drop and not just an attention problem.

I hardly see that worth researching honestly, it seems kind of obvious. Saying that it "effectively reduces IQ" is not the same as saying it reduces IQ. It effectively reduces IQ because it prevents you from focusing your mind on any one task. It's not a reduction in intelligence, it's just a distracted frame of mind -- like a teenager who's girlfriend just broke up with him and he can't think of anything else for a few weeks. It's all easily explained with behavioral psychology or just plain common sense.

Gosh, all this time I've been reading the questions and answers on EMD and even answering a few myself, I thought I was getting smarter and smarter. I used to have to correct, at least, 5 or ten spelling errors in every post. Through the years I can now, every now and then, post an error free post. At the rate I've been going I figured I'd become an absolute "Genius". Now I'm being told I'm going the other way. Before long I'll be a total Dummy (who can spell great) :D ;)

Sherry

I am the evidence it works as stated :o
 

Hm, my spelling has turned from really good to awfully bad, I barely could concentrate on aything for long without running to the computer to see if an email has arrived.

Only total abstinence seeems to work but I fool it by not following it.

I am dependent on using my puter like a compulsive over eater or similar. Obsesion is the name of the game.

Could that be what they do talk about?

I doubt that the casual user woudl be affected. They are not dependent on it. My sister use email only once a week.

Me used to use it some 10 or more hours a day. Glued to the display frantically poundign the keyboard.

I found one psychologist saying it remidned him of peopel being madly in love for the first time. Totally occupide with thought on the beloved and focused only on renewing their connection fi held apart by circumstances.

I am in love with internet communication then maybe. Madly in love. Obsessed even.

Trew da Dummie

imo...i don't think it will damage your IQ...
but it will definitely do damage to your IP...your Inteligence Patient.:D :D

a loss of 10 points? well, mine being about 30, losing 10 more points wouldn't be that significant :p :D so, why worry :D

Re: Does e-mail damage your IQ?
 

o corse not ol chap. After world war XXI in 1372, I haven't seen an peace o scoch tape in yers!

Couldn't resist :p

Sherry: Checking your posts for spelling errors is a waste of time.

Please don't refuse to read this post because it looks weird. You can read it easily. Not only can you read it easily, you can actually "speed read" it.
.....

> I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The
> phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch taem at
> Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a
> wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in
> the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it
> wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey
> lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately
> cllaed Typoglycemia :)-
>>
> Amzanig huh? Yaeh and yuo awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Wow! That is amazing. You're right, I could speed read it about 3 or even 4 time faster than if it had been spelt correctly. :D

Sherry

Tried to read the original articles, but they were full of difficult long words and I kept getting distra-

Er, what was I saying :)