|
Digital Addiction 1.0
|
07-Jan-2009
|
|
Let us start with a few general questions. Can you not remember the number of mobile phones you've had in your life time? If you can remember, is the number greater than 8? How about how many times you check your E-mail throughout the day? And how many different accounts? Believe it or not, it can help to step outside your life for a moment and try and put all the influence that technology has on your life into perspective. Is the influence too much? Is there waste? Is there overlap? Is there a lot of overlap? Some insight, if I may...
E-mail
As I've mentioned before, E-mail is of the utmost importance in our lives today, and we most likely have several (at least 2, but should have 4) different accounts that need at least regular attention. I, regrettably, have even more than double that, and it can be a bit much, believe me. Nonetheless, with E-mail in its current form, it's a sad reality that we all should (must) partake in. That being said, is there too much partaking to be had?
I still use my trusty Cingular 8525 (with Windows Mobile 6, a disastrous mistake...) as it gives me Terminal Services with a full and comfortable keyboard that has literally allowed me to manage my servers remotely while at a conference luncheon table in between sessions. I use it for its' many other fantastical features as well. Namely, checking all of my E-mail all of the time. And I mean all the time. I have found that sometimes, when I'm particularly jittery or agitated, I can check for new messages as often as once every 10 minutes – and that is outside of a work setting. I have literally had people come up and tell me it's a “digital free time”. Which, not surprisingly, usually starts a debate...fight...return to my lair to reconnect to the world. That particular event was actually at a party. I don't even think I had a specific message I was waiting for. And that is the real point of it.
We have had to train ourselves to adopt these strange habits, the equivalent of checking to see if the postman has delivered mail, every 10 minutes, that when the time comes to stop doing this – our bodies are so adjusted we simply can't turn the habit off. Granted, E-mail is sent instantaneously, and more and more important communications are being transmitted (sometimes exclusively) via it; however, it is an addiction onto itself and, realistically, needs to be kept in check as is the case with any other addiction.
There are some things you should do, and other things you shouldn't. I cannot recommend that you not have instantaneous access to your work E-mail; this would be a tragic mistake for you and possibly many others. If work has ended, though, then the work E-mail should as well. If you still want to check it at one point in the evening just to brace yourself for the fires that will need your attention in the morning, so be it, but do so at a decent time where you've had an appropriate “mellow down” period after work, but still have enough room to do so again before bed if need be.
As far as your personal E-mail, you definitely should not be checking that instantaneously. I cannot think of an E-mail client that does not have an automated attendant that will check for new mail at a set interval; use it. Honestly – even every half hour is too often. As important as it is to maintain the work habit, so is it to break the home habit. It would not be inappropriate to only check your personal E-mail twice after work. Perhaps once in the morning before work as well, as, let's face it, despite everybody doing it..., you should not be sending/forwarding/et cetera personal communications on company time. It's not appropriate, it's not what you're being paid for, and depending on the filters they have, it can get you into trouble.
Perhaps the biggest thing you can do is to stop expecting instantaneous responses from others. It is a total double standard. We do not want to be burdened by others, but boy when we send out videos of our cat sitting in the funny hat – well we just need some instant gratification and affirmation from our neighbor's niece's second cousin; it's important. If we all loosened up a little with our expectations of each other, we would soon find the expectations loosened up on ourselves.
To be continued... |
|
