Effective communication or the lack of it fascinates me.  

I continually hear complaints about people not returning phone calls or emails, responding to a requested proposal, or forgetting to keep an appointment. The latest research proves there might be a scientific reason for what I thought was "the new rude."It's called brain freeze.   

Constant emails, scores of apps, incoming texts and tweets, and continual Facebook updates are contributing to numb our brains and outpace our neurons' processing capabilities.

Remember, this overload doesn't include completing necessary tasks for your "real job."   

Let's take a look at the news.

The streaming of 24-hour digital news runs faster than the brain's ability to make moral decisions. Excessive information overload has created certain cognitive effects. The constant stream of news about catastrophic occurrences such as bomb attacks,  economic collapse, and the plummeting Dow is overloading our brains and making our responses indifferent and seemingly unconcerned.  

E. M. Howell [in a recent article in the Harvard Business Review] identified the negative neurological effects of information overload by describing it as 'attention deficit trait (ADT)'. The core symptoms are distractability, inner frenzy and impatience. The overload may cause depression and disinterest.

The quicker we know about events, the less it seems to be sinking in and having the expected effect. The neurons associated with traits such as human wisdom or empathy are found in the slower acting, recently evolved regions of our brain that are bypassed when the world feels stressful. Our more primitive survival instincts tend to take over and dictate behavior. So if someone is flipping you the bird in a bout of road rage or a client feels free to vent, they, too, may be victims of brain freeze.

Our brains don't have time to digest the facts, match it with appropriate reactions and then behave accordingly.  

We are wired to respond to what immediately we are faced with. So if an email pops up on the screen, or there is a Facebook posting, we are conditioned to respond to what is the latest information, rather than the most important. 

It's quantity vs. quality.So what to do?

• Be discriminating: decide what is important and what isn't and eliminate what isn't.
• Prioritize: set aside a specific time to deal with the interruptions of social media (each interruption doesn't include the time needed to get back to the high priority tasks) so stick to your schedule and don't just respond on cue
• Take a vacation from digital info: have information-free time. Make it weekends or evenings after 9:00 pm. Avoid cell phones, IPADs, computers or the late Nightly News.
• Make Decisions: create a list of the pros + cons. What is your best plan of action? Or simply choose what gives you the results you are looking for. Break the paralysis by selecting what meets that criterion.
• Take a real vacation and break your routine and go someplace different and dream, take a nap and chill and enjoy the glorious days of summer!