Something new that I've seen is men standing at urinals on their phones. It really blew my mind that they can't even take a pee that lasts maybe 20-30 seconds without looking at their phone. What could you possibly do in that time in that position?
I do it. Typically just checking a few message alerts, or finishing a news story, or starting a podcast download. It's less disruptive than checking those items in front of someone else, when you should be giving the other person attention.
Do I have to? No. Do I always do it? No. But just today at the gym, I used the 30 seconds or so there to start downloading a podcast to listen to during my workout. Every button click takes a couple seconds, pause, wait, etc... Why not stack those non-productive times together?
I guess, but doesn't that start to feel like the tyranny of productivity? If it doesn't take long while you're the urinal it doesn't take long just afterwards too, and then you can enjoy the feeling of having a pee! (Perhaps there's a blogpost in "Mindful pissing"...)
After that, I need to be using my hands more - washing them, putting stuff in the locker, tying shoes, etc. Standing there for 20-30-40 seconds is one of the few times one or both hands are free and my brain can go do something else for a bit (read, get a podcast, etc).
I feel like people have a need to “fill the void” with productivity. It’s like they can’t be alone with their thoughts anymore.
I feel like this is becoming a more serious problem than people realize.
I also feel like people can’t do tasks quietly, without having a feed of music or podcasts. I see it with my wife and my kids. None of them are able to carry out activities without some audio being steamed to their brain. Most people can’t even work without headphones on, even in a quiet environment.
Most people will say “what’s wrong with that?”, but I feel this is a symptom of some underlying anxiety, we just don’t realize it.
I need the audio streamed in - usually white/brown noise. This blocks out distractions. 30 years ago perhaps people could do 'knowledge work' without these, but most of the people I know who did knowledge work years ago - lawyers, accountants, architects - they all had private offices they could go do heads down work in. 'Open office' plans seem to have ruined this. I spent years in the late 90s in open office plans trying to build web applications, sandwiched in between ad sales and project management people, constantly on the phone. Worked fine for them - they were often on phone calls. But those phone calls bled over in to my ears - unwelcomed - and created constant interruptions and context switching.
The 'underlying anxiety' might be because there's far more noise in our environments - inside and outside - than there was a couple generations ago? More traffic, bigger cars, leaf blowers, lawn mowers, more airplanes. More people in smaller open plan offices... None of these are really under my control. Wearing head phones to block that stuff out is under my control.
Listening to actual music with words or podcasts while trying to work would, in fact, be worse for me, and I think for many folks. Unsure how people do that, but white noise blocking does help many folks.
Probably 30 years ago, a Washington Post columnist (a recent arrival from Philadelphia) thought it an illustration of Washington compulsiveness that he had seen a man at the gym take his pager into the showers. That I should say makes less sense, given the slight probability of saving half of one's shower duration in returning a call.
Let me add that I am not one of the multi-tasking multi-monthers: the phone says that I had 32 minutes/day of screen time last week.
