| In his latest book Crazy Busy, Dr. Edward M. | | | | commands to someone on her cell phone, |
| Hollowell, a psychiatrist and expert in Attention | | | | occasionally glanced in the mirror to check her |
| Deficit Disorder (ADD), talks about a phenomenon | | | | eye makeup, and routinely monitored the GPS |
| he began to notice in the mid 1990s-a dramatic | | | | indicator on her dashboard -- all while navigating a |
| increase in people visiting him exhibiting symptoms | | | | 6,000 pound SUV through early morning |
| of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).Attention | | | | bumper-to-bumper traffic.Staring out the window |
| Deficit Disorder can be characterized by a | | | | of the bus, I was thankful that I was in the lane |
| person's inability to concentrate or to think for a | | | | next to hers, safely nestled in a larger cocoon of |
| period of time, primarily because the person | | | | metal and steel than she was. It was then that I |
| cannot focus on a single task at hand. ADD | | | | began to notice that she was far from being |
| sufferers are easily distracted, cannot filter | | | | alone in her crazybusy multitasking -- she had |
| information well, typically have high anxiety levels, | | | | plenty of company in the surrounding traffic. The |
| and are often extremely forgetful.People with | | | | guy driving an SUV just in front of her was |
| ADD typically rush around a lot, feel impatient | | | | glancing at his mail, drinking coffee, munching on a |
| wherever they are, love speed, get frustrated | | | | doughnut, and yelling at his kids seated in the |
| easily, lose focus in the middle of tasks, and | | | | backseat - all while trying to keep at least a part |
| struggle to pay attention to one issue for even | | | | of his concentration focused on the other vehicles |
| more than a few seconds.Hollowell's major theme | | | | around him.When I got off the bus, I decided to |
| in the book is that the modern world is so | | | | stop off at a local park. I wanted to enjoy a few |
| "crazybusy" (his coinage) with its increased | | | | minutes of relaxation in the morning sun since I |
| demands for ever more speed and stimulation | | | | had a few minutes to kill before an appointment. |
| that it is causing more and more otherwise | | | | Glancing around, I noticed more rampant |
| normal people to suffer ADD symptoms. By | | | | examples of crazybusy multitasking here in the |
| trying to keep up with the pace of modern | | | | park. As I sat down and looked around, I saw a |
| society, more and more people suffer from | | | | jogger simultaneously talking on his cell phone and |
| distractibility, inability to filter information, | | | | fiddling with his Palm Pilot while he ran, trying to |
| forgetfulness, high anxiety, and a host of other | | | | keep from becoming entangled in the leash |
| symptoms that are characteristics of ADD. People | | | | affixed to his wrist, as his poor dog panted, |
| enter what he refers to as the "F state" | | | | running behind him. I also saw a few people talking |
| becoming frenzied, fearful, forgetful, and | | | | to themselves as they walked or jogged, or at |
| sometimes furious.He thinks that these | | | | least I thought they were talking to themselves, |
| symptoms, once applicable to only a special | | | | until, as they approached, I was able to make out |
| population, are now found in just about everyone, | | | | the ear pods they wore, and hear snippets of |
| at one time or another., and that perhaps our | | | | their cell phone conversations.I guess that walking |
| entire society is suffering from culturally induced | | | | without using a cell phone to multitask has |
| Attention Deficit Disorder, and that being | | | | become too boring of an activity for many |
| crazybusy has become a national epidemic.When I | | | | people, unless they are able to engage in a never |
| thought about what he had to say in his book, I | | | | ending series of multitasking activities. On my |
| recalled some examples of how people that I | | | | walks, I constantly have to steer clear of these |
| observed in everyday life seemed to engage in | | | | multitasking crazybusy people engaged in all |
| multitasking to the point of craziness, at least as | | | | varieties of cell phone chats. As I shift to avoid |
| far as I was concerned. To me it seemed that | | | | collisions with them, I hear some barking out |
| some people often seemed to lose the ability to | | | | orders to subordinates, while I hear others |
| focus on a single task and to concentrate on that | | | | speaking deferentially to supervisors or clients, |
| task to its completion before starting a new task. | | | | while still others are engaged in loud arguments |
| Whenever I interacted with these crazybusy | | | | with girlfriends or boyfriends, gesticulating and |
| people, engaged in their multitasking, it was as | | | | screaming as passerby look on, usually amused. |
| though I could never act or reply fast enough to | | | | But most of the time I detect partial |
| communicate with them. They were always doing | | | | conversations of banal senseless chatter that |
| or saying the next thing while I was still focused | | | | seem like a waste of a good cell phone, and |
| on what they had already done or said a split | | | | nothing more than a terrible annoyance to anyone |
| second ago.I think that these constant | | | | who happens to be within earshot.Ten years ago, |
| multitasking crazybusy people can be found | | | | before the cell phone multitasking mania, these |
| everywhere - never having enough tasks to do | | | | people would have been considered certifiably |
| at once, busy little bees always needing the | | | | crazy, or at a minimum, very eccentric to say |
| adrenaline rush of another task to complete or | | | | the least. Talking to themselves, making gestures |
| another conversation to finish.One morning, as I | | | | with their hands in the air, shouting or screaming |
| was sitting on the bus , I happened to glance out | | | | as they startled passerby and bystanders, one |
| the window and saw a young woman driving a | | | | and all, these were not behaviors that normal |
| large SUV in the next lane. She reminded me of | | | | people engaged in. Oh, but how times have |
| the consummate crazybusy multitasker, striving | | | | changed!Today people who display this sort of |
| to cram every available moment of her existence | | | | behavior are just considered more of the |
| with a never ending series of tasks to be | | | | crazybody multitasking multitudes.Bob Lim has |
| accomplished nonstop.I couldn't help but to remain | | | | joined the struggle against the incorporation of the |
| transfixed as I stared out the window. I looked | | | | world into the corporate alien fold. From time to |
| on in amazement as she grasped at a McDonald's | | | | time he will give our website his perspective on |
| Egg McMuffin with one hand, shouted out | | | | this growing problem. |