SP: English Study Group

source: http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/we_are_all_living_inside_the_notification_hell

Emails, tweets, notifications, text and instant messages, Facebook status updates, Path moments — all these are new tools of communication when taken together are notification hell. These notifications prey on human desire for a dopamine fix. And just as we are over-caffeinated, I think the 21st century is quickly making us over-notified. (I think this is my second new phrase of the week – the first one being aspirational escape velocity)

The worst part is that there is nothing we can do about it. Apparently Tweeting and checking emails is much harder addiction to give up than cigarettes or alcohol, according to a study by Chicago University’s Booth Business School. No surprise since they are all about attention gone awry. The dopamine fix, I guess is worse than nicotine. Especially since it is free – while a fine bottle of scotch can cost a pretty penny.

What all this multitasking is doing to our brain is hard to imagine. This video by Chris Crutchfield does a good job of being a mirror to our over-notified selves.

video link: http://chriscrutchfield.tv/#2710829/Digitals

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1. dopamine n.多巴胺(腦內分泌物，屬於神經遞質，可影響一個人的情緒。積極做某事時，腦中會非常活絡的分泌出大量多巴胺荷爾蒙。它是一種使人類引起慾望的荷爾蒙，但分泌過量會過度消耗體力和熱量)
2. caffeine n.咖啡因
3. nicotine n.尼古丁

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Q1: DO you have the over-notification problem? How does it affect your real life? 
Q2: how do you spend your New Year holidays? Try your best to describe or introduce it.