After the invention of the telephone, the word “hello” grew to be one of the most commonly used words in the English language. Prior to that, it was just an offshoot, seldom-used aberration of a greeting. Before the invention, when you met someone face-to-face, you were more likely to say, “Good morning,” or “Good evening,” or “Most beneficent greetings, my good sir.” Not “Hello.”
A pandemic, hyper-partisan politics and social media are distracting workers and office staff alike.
Technology and lifestyle change our language.
There aren’t any statistics on this, but I’m convinced that technology and lifestyle have increased the popularity of another specific phrase in the English language. It is “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
We have become distracted and the reason is primarily technology, but also lifestyle. Right now, as I write this, there are three things that are diverting you, people in your office and workers on your job sites: social media, the COVID-19 pandemic and politics.
One of those, social media, is an especially thorny issue, and I’ll jump into that later. Politics—especially presidential politics—rolls around every four years. It’s predictable. This election year, the waters of society are roiling, and our emotions and political engagement are on high tension. People are struggling to have civil conversations with friends, family and coworkers who sit on the other side of the deep, vast political divide that separates us. Within my own extended family, there are siblings who are no longer speaking to each other.
Fortunately, in the work environment, this is a pretty simple distraction to manage. A “no politics” rule keeps everyone on the same playing field and focused on the task at hand. We all know the one loudmouth who can’t help himself from spouting his political opinion, and a company policy of no politics manages what—in today’s environment—can be an explosive situation.
The pandemic provides another distraction. We have to take special precautions that prevent us from working efficiently, and anxiety and fear of infection can wear people down emotionally. But this distraction—we hope and pray— will be temporary. Because of that, the damage done to our attention span will be resolved by itself and may not require special interaction. Managers just need to provide the support and help workers require to manage the crisis and keep them healthy, both physically and emotionally.
Social media is the most pernicious, virulent form of distraction that has struck the human race in history with the possible exception of Beanie Babies. On the job site, smartphones with social media apps are wonderful tools that can also become safety hazards. In the office, those same apps are probably even more effective tools but also more effective at preventing people from doing their work.
There is a lot of research on this, but if you haven’t watched the documentary “The Social Dilemma,” it’s worth the time to understand how experts in technology are developing tools that are designed to distract you.
In economics, this effect is called the “bliss point,” which is defined as the quantity of consumption that when exceeded would make you less satisfied. If you had unlimited economic resources, how many cars would you buy until the next one was not satisfying? That’s the bliss point. In food chemistry, the bliss point is that moment when the next potato chip is no longer satisfying, and food chemists are manipulating taste to make that point of dissatisfaction as deep into the king-size bag of chips as they can get you.
With social media, we are paying for the next bit of consumption—the next tweet, the next “Like,” the next video—not with money but with our time. And if you had unlimited time, at what point would you become dissatisfied with watching the next puppy video? Or following the next conspiracy theory? Or digging into the next fantasy football stat? Technologists, like food chemists, are manipulating the algorithms to keep you satisfied by presenting you the information you crave.
There’s more to the distraction than just the bliss point. For example, “Likes” on a Facebook post or retweets on a tweet for many become a measure of self-confidence. We need the validation from others to make us feel good about ourselves. And when social media provides an easy measuring tool for that, people with low self-confidence or other issues can suffer serious mental health problems. Bolstering self-esteem can be a power motivator, which leads to further distraction.
We live in a distracted world. On a job site, anxiety about the pandemic or anger about the election gets our attention and keeps us from doing our work. Those anxieties and emotions are normal, though. Some people struggle with them more than others, but with time the pandemic and the politics will fade away. For company owners and managers, that is a blessing because it means they only need to hold out till the storm breaks.
The distraction from social media, though, is pernicious. Its effects work efficiency and job site safety. It can undermine mental health. Distraction by social media is a powerful impulse that requires specific attention from managers. Don’t assume that people in your company are not affected by it. They are, and understanding how they are and what you can do about it is essential to the effective management of any business in today’s world.
