IlliGAL Blogging

CNN reports the results of a British study in which workers distracted by Email, phone calls, and IM suffered an IQ loss greater than that suffered by a person smoking marijuana:

In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King's College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day.

He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.

"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," Wilson said. "We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness.

This raises the unsettling possiblity that perhaps the postmodern equivalent of walking and chewing bubble gum has become IMing and smoking a joint. Hat tip to IFTF Future Now.