Have we become Pavlov’s dogs?

Have you been trained to act on some behaviors automatically?

Let me explain. In the early in the history of the science in behaviorism, a famous behaviorist named Ivan Pavlov showed that he could get a dog to salivate through the ringing of a bell. What he did was ring a bell while the dogs were eating because of this the dogs would associate food with the bell. Thus, making the bell the food or treat.

And this form of behaviorism continues with today’s technologies because they that are manipulative as the bell from Pavlov’s classic behaviorism experiment. Take for example the little ‘ping’ on your table or phone every time you get an email or a message. The ‘ping’ gets you to act by checking your device to see what it is that you’ve received. It is usually the most insignificant thing you could do at this time. Why do I say that? Let me put it into a work context. You are working at a particular project, and things are going very well. When all of a sudden you get your notification ‘ping’. You drop what you were doing and check your electronic device. Some of you are saying that this is no problem. But it is and here are the facts;

• The average recovery time with each interruption is between 4 and 10 minutes.
• The average person is interrupted 6 to 7 times per hour.
• 80% of interruptions are considered trivial.
• The interruptions decrease the amount of time spent with family/friends from 26 hours to 18 hours per month.
• 62% of Americans say that work has a significant impact on their stress levels.

Now that you know the facts, does it make sense to continue becoming like Pavlov’s dogs?

If you said ‘no’ then you want to move on from your addiction to technology. What can you do?

1. Turn off the e-mail reception recognition ping on your devices.
2. Focus on the work at hand, the work you are being paid to do.
3. Check your e-mail during your breaks.

If you are not sold on my suggestions, let me ask you two final questions;

• Would you like to continue increasing your stress?
• Do you have enough insurance to help pay for your funeral, and provide for your family?