I have been attempting to do school work and classroom planning to get a good handle on the direction that my class needs to go, this whole vacation. Instead most of my vacation I have found myself going down too many “rabbit holes”. These simple side jaunts down paths that are really interesting to me, but not what I need to get done. I find they become “time sucks” and before I realize it 2-3 hours have passed from me pursuing these interesting, but not related to what I originally went on the computer to do. The end result is that I haven’t gotten any closer to getting my work done.
It is difficult to ignore the siren’s call of blogging, Twitter, Facebook, my Google Reader, blogs and all the links/ideas they give me to look at, new applications/software to try or information that I want to follow-up on; make it so that I don’t get to what I wanted to accomplish originally, in other words I got distracted. I am not being lazy, because I am reading and doing a lot of things, it is just not what I need to get done.
Is this the beginnings of a new diagnosis for the next DSM – Internet ADD???? IF SO I HAVE IT!!!!
ARE WE AT THE POINT WHERE THERE IS SIMPLY TOO MUCH INFORMATION AVAILABLE that too easily distracts us or do I have to simply learn how to filter the information better OR become even more self-disciplined?
Does anyone else have this issue? How do you deal with it?
How does this post relate to Special Education? Is this what happens to many of our students, they start out with the best of intentions about getting their work done and are distracted by something (i.e. the web, music, TV, etc.). Before they realize what has happened they have run out of time to do what they originally intended, don’t get it done AND get the reputations as being lazy. I think this happens quite often and we as teachers need to be aware of how this affects their ability to get things done. Is their not getting work done laziness or is it part of their disability?
There is the myth of laziness that so many teachers use to describe certain students, but if I can be easily distracted, as a fairly well adjusted adult who is also a teacher, it is probably happening to our students. Unfortunately, they don’t have our experience on how to get things done despite multiple distractions. Before labeling a student as lazy think about their disability and how it affects their ability to get work done.
I guess that I have to go get my planning done, now that I have “wasted” over an hour writing this post instead of getting ready for next week. 
Addicted
February 24, 2010
I want you to know I was just talking to my boyfriend about his and since he laughed and said my AIADD = “Adult Internet Attention Deficit Disorder” idea was funny and could be a real disorder. Since he works in psych and I live to ask and answer questions on the web, I took this as the perfect opportuinty to indulge and see if I was really the only one. I see now that I am not and I believe that if I find the right rabbit hole, I may find a support group for this lol.