Stoned On E-Mail

Using E-mail and other messaging technologies excessively can lower your IQ as much as if you smoked some weed, according to recent research sponsored by Hewlett-Packard.

Using e-mail and other messaging technologies excessively can lower your IQ as much as if you smoked some weed, according to recent research sponsored by Hewlett-Packard.

According to researchers at the University of London Institute of Psychiatry, there’s a serious "Info-Mania" problem among British workers, who are so addicted to constantly checking e-mail and text messages during meetings, in the evening, and on weekends that their IQs fall by 10 points.

That’s more than double the four-point plummet seen in studies done on the impact of smoking marijuana, the researchers said, and equal to the affect of missing a night of sleep.

"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," said Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychologist with the Institute, in a statement. "We’ve found that Info-Mania, if unchecked, will damage a worker’s performance by reducing their mental sharpness."

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Full Story: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=162101546