Ever wonder what all those electronic poking sticks might be doing to your attention span?

Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell has identified a late-onset cousin of ADD that he calls “Attention Deficit Trait,” a “condition induced by modern life” and the endless “chatter” generated by our beepy devices and interrupt-driven lifestyles. (via 43 folders)

CNet has an interesting interview with Dr Hallowell about this new affliction...

Q: What is ADT? Hallowell: It's sort of like the normal version of attention deficit disorder. But it's a condition induced by modern life, in which you've become so busy attending to so many inputs and outputs that you become increasingly distracted, irritable, impulsive, restless and, over the long term, underachieving. In other words, it costs you efficiency because you're doing so much or trying to do so much, it's as if you're juggling one more ball than you possibly can.

What are some of the symptoms?
Hallowell: When people find that they're not working to their full potential; when they know that they could be producing more but in fact they're producing less; when they know they're smarter than their output shows; when they start answering questions in ways that are more superficial, more hurried than they usually would; when their reservoir of new ideas starts to run dry; when they find themselves working ever-longer hours and sleeping less, exercising less, spending free time with friends less and in general putting in more hours but getting less production overall.

So now we can just blame it on ADT. I do believe it has already reached epidemic proportions here in Tokyo.

The folks over at TimeOut must be rubbing their hands with glee at this latest piece of lifestyle troubleshooting circulating the net. I downloaded this handy tool a few weeks ago and it rocks. Seriously, it has helped me control my computer use and rest time really effectively. Mac users should go check it out.

We need more time out to stare at our sand covered feet. Is that the crappiest segue I've ever pulled? I think so. The above pic of a sandcovered foot was taken at Ohama Beach on the recent Izu jaunt away.