2019 is the year to actually take charge of our relationship with technology

2019 is the year to actually take charge of ur relationship with technology2019 is the year to actually take charge of ur relationship with technologyThe most significant development in technology in the past year wasnt AI or machine learning or the cloud or blockchain. No, the biggest step forward in the world of technology in 2018 was the realization that we have to set boundaries in our relationship with technology to protect our humanity. This was the year our relationship with technology went through a profound transformation. It was the year we realized that the consequences of allowing technology into every aspect of our lives arent all positive.As weve rushed to embrace technology that promises us constant connection, endless efficiency, and hyper-productivity, weve discovered that the results arent always as promised.In fact, very often, they are the opposite of what we are really seeking. What we have discovered is that technology might be great at delivering what we want i n the moment, but its less great at giving us what we need over the long term.Yes, we all love our devices and all the amazing things they allow us to do. But at the saatkorn time, our technology has accelerated our lives beyond our capacity to keep up. We all feel it, and its getting worse. It turns out, were being controlled by something we should be controlling. And its consuming our attention and crippling our ability to focus, think, be present, and, most important, to truly connect, both with others and with ourselves.So now that we have had this great awakening in 2018, it is time to make 2019 the year of action and change. This is the year to go beyond awareness and actually take charge of our relationship with technology. As were now coming to realize, technology is simply a tool. Its about how we use it and what it ultimately does for our lives. Technology can be used to augment our humanity or to consume it.And the numbers make that clear. Were hardwired to connect and, y es, our devices offer us a form of perpetual connection with the entire world. But that often comes with disconnection from what is immediately around us. In aPew study, 89 percent of phone owners said they had used their phones in their previous social gathering, but 82 percent said that when they do this it damages the interaction. And in astudyfrom Baylor University in Texas, 70 percent of respondents said that phones had interfered with their interactions with their romantic partners. And it disconnects us from our families.According to asurveycarried out by Wakefield Research for Comcast, 98 percent of parents said that unplugging from devices during meals is important to maintaining their family bond, and yet 42 percent couldnt even remember the last time their family had eaten a meal with no devices present. Even though we might think our devices make us more efficient and productive by allowing us to multitask, the research says otherwise.A study from Stanford University fou nd that multitasking actually reduces our productivity by as much as 40 percent. Another study from the University of London found that multitasking lowered ones IQ to a level similar to what it would be after staying up all night or smoking marijuana. And all those emails bombarding your inbox? Those are taking a toll, too. Gloria fruchtmark of the University of California, Irvine, found that in a typical office, an employee gets only 11 minutes between each interruption - and then takes an average of 25 minutes to even get back to the original task.In fact, our phones disconnect us even when we are not using them. A study from Virginia Tech looked at conversations among 100 pairs of people, some with phones on the table. The authors found that the mere presence of an untouched phone degraded the quality of the conversation and lowered the levels of empathy the participants felt toward each other. As MIT professor Sherry Turkle put it in her book,Reclaiming Conversation, even a si lent phone disconnects us.And that is a lot of disconnection. The number of people in India being treated for mobile phone addiction has spiked between 75 percent and 100 percent in the last year alone, mostly among young people between 13 and 24 years old. And a recent study showed that 65 percent of Indians between 22 and 25 years old show signs of depression, while 25 percent of teens (13-15 years old) suffer from depression. But that can all change.And it should. We now know that we cant be healthy without a healthy relationship with technology. We now know the value of being mindful about how we use technology. And more and more people are reclaiming the joys of real connection that they had outsourced to their devices. So lets make 2019 the year we disconnect - when we can, but regularly, and every day - from our phones and connect with ourselves, with those we love and with what we really want to be doing. Lets resolve to live our lives instead of just documenting experienc es we never quite had. Let us resolve to look up from our screens and look at each other - or look inside ourselves.Follow ushereand subscribeherefor all the latest news on how you can keep Thriving.Stay up to date or catch-up on all our podcasts with Arianna Huffingtonhere.OriginallypublishedonTheEconomicTimesand republished on Thrive Global.

Do study habits of people who get As differ from those who get Cs

Do study habits of people who get As differ from those who get CsDo study habits of people who get As differ from those who get CsMy IQ is well above average and I learn well in the traditional school setup by reading and listening. I was doomed for success at school.In the first few grades, I was ahead of my peers. When I was in the first class of primary school I read my sisters history textbooks of the 4th class. I had straight As all the time.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreIn high school it was similar. I struggled for the first semester before I learned the ropes in the new school, and then I had the best grades in the whole class for the next five years.As you can see, my habits had very little to do with my results. Everything was relatively easy for me and it was enough to put minimal effort to earn decent grades.The only good habit I had was that I read a lot. I mean A LOT I read a few hundred books a year. The more you read, the wider your vocabulary. The wider your vocabulary, the more you understand what you read. And you can read faster.Personal qualities can take you only so farMy history doesnt prove that habits dont count in education. After the high school I got to the university. Barely. I was third but belastung on the admission list and only because I sat next to my kindergarten friend on the entry exam.I was no longer the sharpest arrow in the quiver. Every student there was intelligent. And I had severe holes in my education. I struggled to advance to the second year. I had to repeat several exams.In the end, I succeeded at the 4th year I earned the educational stipend for being among the top 25% of students. Again, my personal qualities contributed greatly to that outcome. Its never bad to be bright at school, and as soon as I filled the holes in my education, my brightness worked to my advantage again. I needed less time and effort to achieve the marks my peers achieved through loads of hard work.The power of habitsTaking the personal qualities aside, I think the greatest differentiator between students who consistently get As and those who regularly get Cs lies in the fact that they haveANYstudy habits at all.If you do your homework regularly, its so much easier to get better grades than those who neglect this chore.If you repeat the lessons every day youve just gone through that day to consolidate your knowledge, you gain the advantage over the ones who dont do this.If you personalize notes to get a better understanding of the material, and you do it day in and day out, your level of understanding simply has to be higher than of those who just write whatever a teacher dictates.How I got into the top 25% of students at the universityIt always puzzled me. How I advanced from last but three to the top 25%? Yep, I was bright, but so were my fellow students. What is more, I had much less time for studying becaus e I got married at the beginning of the second year and had two sons before I started the fourth year.Only when I heard about the power of habits I was able to solve the puzzle.Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day. - JimRohnYou see, my foremost success discipline was attending all the lectures and classes. I attribute 80% of my results to it.My peers didnt attend all lectures and classes, and that made the whole difference. They starting level was zero. Zero multiplied by infinity of effort is still zero. They were as bright as me, but they would rather sleep late or go to the party than attend a lecture. There were over 100 people in my class, but I remember times when only a dozen of us attended a lecture.The other 20% of my studying results came from the fact that I had a very high ratio of delivering smaller projects on time. I never worked till the last minute, but dabbled with them here and there, bit by bit, to deliver them on time.This article first appeared on Medium.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

This is the most distracted group of people when they are driving

This is the most distracted group of people when they are drivingThis is the most distracted group of people when they are drivingTexting might be the most prominent contributor to lethal road distractions, but it does stand on its own. A new surveyof 2,000 Americans conducted by Zebra outed some of the other frequent and often underreported offenders.From screaming kids to selfies, lets examine the top factors keeping Americans preoccupied behind the wheel and its mortality impact.The most frequent offendersAbout nine people are killed a day due to a distracted driver, and an additional 1,000 are injured. Distracted driving accounted for 3,450 deaths back in 2016, 3,166 deaths in 2017 and 4,637 deaths just last year.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraTexting plays a colossal role, unsurprisingly but work-related messages do a lot of the legwork for young people in particular. Thir ty-seven percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 said that they feel intensely pressured to respond to work emails and messages while they are operating a vehicle. This is mora than 10% than the national average that identifies with this pressure. Of course, not all phone distractions belong to overachievement-other significantdigital factors include browsing social media, taking photos (one out of three female respondents said they took photos while they drove), watchingvideos, and streaming shows.The severity of these statistics is actually affected by the kind of phone each respondent had. Sixteen percent of iPhone users claimed to never get distracted while driving, while 23% of Android users said the same. Compared to Androidusers, iPhone users were also twice as likely to video chat while driving, use Instagram, stream shows on Netflix and Hulu, and take photos and videos. Ten percent of iPhone users confessed to watching Youtube while driving, compared to 4% of A ndroid users.According to the report, Distracted driving - including texting while driving - is the cause of more than 58% of crashes involving teen drivers.Whats more, it was determined that a driver is eight times more likely to get into a car crash when reaching for something.Older Americans had different pressing distractions, namely children. Eighty-seven percent of adults with small children in the car, reported finding it challenging to remain focused on the road. Thirty-one percent of participants said that they were more distracted when their dogs were in the car with them.The other major funder of these rates is alcohol consumption. Drunk driving is responsible for twenty-nine deaths a day and ten thousand per year.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people