DIGITAL EXHAUSTION

An invitation to think more deeply about the ways in which we interact with our devices.

One of the unspoken dangers of the digital age is people allowing our digital lives to go unexamined. We know we’re exhausted, but why? The average office worker receives 120 emails per day and checks email 80 times a day. Unconscious scrolling on the internet further distracts us. If we’re parents today, we use our devices for coordinating child care and carpools and participating in school communications. In fact, we spend on average 57 minutes a day just switching applications, and we can switch 1,200 times. After each switch, it takes time to get back on track with a new task. Author, academic researcher, and corporate consultant Leonardi investigates how digital productivity tools can have hidden costs that divide our attention and affect our well-being. His book delves into the impacts of fragmented attention and why it exhausts us. For example, switching domains (digital tools and apps), switching modes (using multiple devices such as phones, laptops, smart watches), and switching arenas (work versus home, which is especially hard on remote workers) all contribute to our cognitive load. After identifying the roots of our overwhelm, Leonardi shows what we can do to regain some control. The book provides research-based recommendations for reducing digital fatigue, such as cutting the number of tools you use by half, batching versus streaming, and acting with more intention. While some of the detailed case studies can be tedious reading, especially as they profile digital routines that result in fatigue, the research and data are thorough. “The Artifice of Intelligence” chapter provides one of the more nuanced and thoughtful discussions of AI and the coming onslaught of AI-generated content, with solid advice on how to approach it.

Helpful for managers, parents, and those thinking about how to manage their digital lives.