Can I have your attention, please?

Lately I've started to wonder if I have ADD. I'll start working on something, then get distracted and look something up online, then get an e-mail that I feel compelled to check immediately. You get the drift. Fifteen minutes later, I've forgotten what I was working on in the first place.

Earlier, I was researching Twitter for an article I'm editing: "Strange Twitter Trending Topics" (you know you're jealous of my job). Which led me to Twitter. Which led me to some random blog. Then I started searching for quotes about Twitter. Then I started thinking maybe *I* need a Twitter account (I had one but deleted it because I couldn't figure out how Twitter was different than Facebook, but I think I get it now.) Somehow I ended up at the Yahoo home page (see, I don't even remember why anymore). An article about the ten ways I'm getting ripped off caught my eye. I clicked on the link, read the article, determined that I'm not getting ripped off in any of the ten ways. Got an e-mail. Checked it. Deleted it because it was about someone's upcoming vacation or something like that.

And there I was: 15 minutes later with the information I needed (usage statistics for Twitter, though garnered from a less reliable source than I'd hoped to find)—information it should have taken me about five minutes to collect.

I don't think it's me. This new Facebook/Twitter status update collective is ruining us for sustained trains of thought. How can one concentrate for longer than five minutes when so much information is constantly being lobbed at us in small, short bursts? What does it mean for your life when you find yourself thinking in status updates?

It's true that this immediate access to all kinds of information makes my job easier. Need some Facebook trivia? No problem. Need a filler quote about bad manners? Easily done. Need to check a fact about Mighty Mouse? The information is just a click away. But has our 24-hour access to information given us collective ADD? I mean, think about it: When is the last time you had a conversation with someone who was scrolling through their iPhone the whole time you were talking? And when did that kind of behavior become acceptable? Food for thought on this Tuesday.

(Editor's Note: Here's hoping that if our IT department is tracking my Internet usage, they'll realize that the nudist camp research I did last week was seriously for work purposes. How was I supposed to predict that nude photos were going to pop up on my screen? And before you argue that nudists and nude photos go hand in hand, I'll have you know that nudists are notoriously camera-shy. But that doesn't apparently apply to ALL nudists. Speaking of ADD, I bet being around a bunch of naked people all day is cause for some serious attention deficit issues.)