This case study taken from the text book Management Information Systems. Managing the digital firm, Laudon & Landon Copyright Pearson Chapter 4 Ethical and Social issues in Information System 151 INTERACTIVE SESSION: TECHNOLOGY TOO MUCH TECHNOLOGY? Do you think that the more information managers the new norms governing it, literature, newspapers receive the better their decisions? Well, think again, scientific journals, fizion, and non-fiction all began Most of us can no longer imagine the world without to contribute to the intellectual climate instead of the Internet and without our favorite gadgets detracting from it. Today, we can't imagine a world whether they're iPads, smartphones, laptops, or cell without print media phones. However, although these devices have Advocates of digital media argue that history is brought about a new era of collaboration and bound to repeat itself as we gain familiarity with the communication, they also have introduced new Internet and other newer technologies. The scientific concerns about our relationship with technology revolution was galvanized by peer review and Some researchers suggest that the Internet and other collaboration enabled by the printing po digital technologies are fundamentally changing the According to many digital media supporters, the way we think-and not for the better. Is the Internet Internet will usher in a similar revolution in actually making us 'dumber and have we reached a publishing capability and collaboration, and it will be point where we have too much technology? Or does a resounding success for society as a whole. the Internet offer so many new opportunities to This may all be true, but from a cognitive discover information that it's actually making us standpoint, the effects of the Internet and other smarter." And, by the way, how do we define digital devices might not be so positive. New studies dumber and smarter in an Internet age? suggest that digital technologies are damaging our Wait a second, you're saying How could this be? ability to think clearly and focus Digital technology The Internet is an unprecedented source for urs develop an inevitable desire to multitask, doing acquiring and sharing all types of information several things at once while using their devices Creating and disseminating media has never been Although TV, the Internet, and video games are casier, Resources like Wikipedia and Google have effective at developing our visual processing ability, helped to organuse knowledge and make that research suggests that they detract from our ability to knowledge accessible to the world, and they would think deeply and retain information. It's true that the not have been possible without the Internet. And Internet grants users can access to the world's other digital media technologies have become Information, but the medium through which thuat indispensable parts of our lives. At first glance, it's information is delivered is hurting our ability to not clear bow such advancements could do anything think deeply and critically about what we read and but make us smarter hear You'd be smarter in the sense of being able to In response to this argument several authorities give an account of the content) by reading a book claim that making it possible for millions of people to rather than viewing a video on the same topic while create media-written blogs photos, videos-has texting with your friends understandably lowered the quality of media. Using the Internet lends itself to multitasking Bloggers very rately do original reporting or research Pages are littered with hyperlinks to other sites but instead copy it from professional source tabbed browsing allows us to switch rapidly between YouTube videos contributed by newbies to video two windows and we can surf the Web while come nowhere near the quality of professional watching TV instant messaging friends, or talking on Videos Newspapers struggle to stay in business white the phone. But the constant distractions and bloggers provide free content of inconsistent quality disruptions that are central to online experiences But similar warnings were issued in response to prevent our brains from creating the neun the development of the printing press. As connections that constitute fall understanding of a Gutenberg's invention spread throughout Europe topic. Traditional print media, by contrast makes it contemporary literature exploded in popularity, and easier to fully concentrate on the content with fewer much of it was considered mediocre by intellectuals interruptions of the era. But rather than being destroyed, it was A recent study conducted by a team of researchers simply in the early stages of fundamental change. As at Stanford found that multitaskers are not only more people came to grips with the new technology and casily distracted, but were also surprisingly poor at 152 Part One Organizations Management, and the Networked Enterprise use multitasking compared to people who rarely do so themselves. The team also found that multitaskers receive a jolt of excitement when contronted with a new piece of information or a new call message or e-mail The cellular structure of the brain is highly adaptable and adjusts to the tools we use, so multitaskers quickly become dependent on the excitement they experience when confronted with something new. This means that multitaskers continue to be casily distracted, even if they're totally unplugged from the devices they most often Eyal Ophir, a cognitive scientist on the research team at Stanford, devised a test to measure this phe nomenon. Subjects self-identifying as multitaskers were asked to keep track of red rectangles in series of images. When blue rectangles were introduced, mult. taskers struggled to recognize whether or not the red rectangles had changed position from image to image Normal testers significantly outperformed the multi- taskers. Less than three percent of multitaskers (called "supertaskera") are able to manage multiple information streams at once for the vast majority of tas, multitasking does not result in greater productiv- ity Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich argues that our brains are being massively remodeled' by our constant and ever-growing usage of the Web. And it's not just the web this contributing to this trend. Our ability to focus is also being undermined by the constant distractions provided by smart phones and other digital technology. Television and video games are no exception. Another study showed that when presented with two identical TV shows one of which had a news crawl at the bottom, viewers retained much more information about the show without the news crawl The impact of these technologies on children may be even greater than the impact on adults, because their brains are still developing and they already struggle to set proper priorities and resist impulses The implications of recent research on the impact of Web 2.0 "social" technologies for management decision making are signiticant. As it turns out, the "always connected harried esecutive scurrying through airports and train stations, holding multiple voice and text conversations with clients and co-workers on sometimes several mobile devices might not be a very good decision maker In fact, the quality of decision making most likely falls as the quantity of digital information increases through multiple channels and managers lose their critical thinking capabilities. Likewise, in terms of manage ment productivity, studies of Internet use in the workplace suggest that Web 2.0 social technologies offer managers new opportunities to waste time rather than focus on their responsibilities. Checked your Facebook page today? clearly we need to find out more about the impacts of mobile and social technologies on management work Source Tendall StrComputest Homedeci Hope The Beatay. The New York Times, July 2010 Marcel "Hoked un Gadot, and yang Mental The New York Tim June 2000 Chay Shitky. Does the Internet Make you Sman The Wallet Tune 4, 2000 Nicholas De themet Me You The Wall 2010: Ofer Meld and Christian Pop-Uchele Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital January 2010 and Technology Producing a Decline to Critical Thinking and Analysis science Daily January 24 2009 CASE STUDY QUESTIONS 1. What are some of the arguments for and against the use of digital media? 2. How might the brain affected by constant digital media usage? 1. Do you think these arguments outweigh the positives of digital media age? Why or why not? 4. What additional concerns are there for children using digital media? Should children under suse computers and cellphones? Why or why not? MIS IN ACTION 1. Make a daily log for 1 week of all the activities you perform each day using digital technology (such as cell phones, computers, television, etc) and the amount of time you spend on each. Note the occasions when you are multitasking. On average, how much time each day do you spend using digital technology? How much of this time do you spend multitasking? Do you think your life is too technology intense? Justify your response