All other content is property of its respective owner
I saw this over on BoingBoing:
Linda Stone (who coined the phrase “continuous partial attention”) has noticed that people hold their breath and breathe shallowly when answering email, a phenomenon she’d dubbed “email apnea.” She’s posted a little rumination on the long-term health impacts of impaired email breathing.
From the original article:
As the email spills onto my screen, as my mind races with thoughts of what I’ll answer first, what can wait, who I should call, what should have been done two days ago; I’ve stopped the steady breathing I was doing only moments earlier in a morning meditation and now, I’m holding my breath.
And here’s the deal: You’re probably holding your breath, too.
I wanted to know — how widespread is email apnea*? I observed others on computers and BlackBerries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes. The vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email. I watched people on cell phones, talking and walking, and noticed that most were mouth-breathing and hyperventilating. Consider also, that for many, posture while seated at a computer can contribute to restricted breathing.
Does it matter? How was holding my breath affecting me?
Do you hold your breath when scanning emails or certain websites? I think I do, sometimes. It’s not something that I really payed attention to before, so I can’t say for sure. I do know that I sometimes get a “compressed” feeling in my ribs sometimes if I slouch at my desk for too long. I’m going to make a conscious effort to breath regularly and see if I notice a difference.
Posted by Aaron on February 20, 2008, 5:02 pm permalink top | general
Interesting. I realized that I was breathing slowly as I read your post, heh heh. I think we may breath slowly whenever our brain has a lot to process, and perhaps reading is one of those things. I don’t think it is quite possible to multitask while reading. Your eyes are focused on the text, and your brain analyzes it. Try listening to music while reading. It will drone itself out in the background if you are really focused on the text. It could be that our brain takes over to read what is written and everything else slows down. It might also explain why people read before going to bed.
hold your back straight when seated in front of your computer, it helps breathing correctly
I never paid attention to my breathe when working on a computer. However, just as I am writing this comment, I notice that I don’t seem to hold my breath while I am writing but I do it while I am having a closer look to a particular part of your article (looking for specific words on the screen for example) but this also match the moment when I change my curve my back to come closer to the screen….
That’s pretty cool, I’ll try and notice if I do that next time I check my emails…and like Juggling Mike, I was breathing slowly while reading this post…but that may be because its 3 am, and I just fed a hungry baby