E-mail a Clear and Present Danger!
Come with me now, to the dim times. Back before smart phones, before iPods. Take a deep breath, click your heels together three times, and . . . whoa! We've touched down in a time even before PC's! Take a look! In this fascinating era people who have deadlines they need to meet or even everyday tasks they need to concentrate on can close their doors, take their phones (yes, landlines exist) off the hook, and have an excellent chance of having an entire uninterrupted work day to themselves. Are work tasks easier? Hell no. Well then, are bosses more flexible? Ha! Bet me. But here in the dim times people understand, as they have for thousands of years previously, that intellectually demanding tasks take concentration, and that requires uninterrupted time for the people performing the tasks. Alas, we cannot stay; everything is starting to swirl and - crap - I have a project due tomorrow and we're back in the endless interruption that is the twenty-teens!
How did we get from there to here? Well, in the beginning there were pagers (anybody remember them), and then e-mail and then IM and finally, nearly universal ownership of smartphones, and as our e-gadgetry increased in sophistication, we gained the technological ability to harass and distract ourselves continuously. But the technology platform by itself is neutral – neither good nor bad. It took a curious cultural shift over several generations to co-opt the technology into serving the e-madness we now suffer under. Somehow, in a progression no sociologist has yet explained to my satisfaction, our culture has come to believe that everybody needs to be accessible to everyone at all times. This is a historically bizarre notion that has made us all crazy. Or, at least, twitchingly neurotic. Do you feel anxious enough to puke by midmorning? Is it 5:00 PM and you feel as if you’ve accomplished nothing the entire day? Welcome to the club! As the articles and scholarly papers at the links below explain, these are universal complaints of our age, and unregulated checking of e-mail is a major contributing factor for many people.
I, along with an increasing number of others, have chosen to limit my access to e-mail. I check twice a day at most on work days, and less often on weekends. Call me a Luddite (you say that as if it’s a bad thing), but I feel so much better! I’ve tried to be deliberately provocative here; every culture has its sacred cows, and few things are more sacred today than our personal-communal addictions to our personal-communications technology. Or do I misunderstand? Feel free to comment on the Electronic (mis)Communications blog page.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141203142644.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10096907/Email-raises-stress-levels.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/3036061/the-future-of-work/you-arent-imagining-it-email-is-making-you-more-stressed-out http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/mindfulness/ (Anderson Cooper / 60 Minutes)
Come with me now, to the dim times. Back before smart phones, before iPods. Take a deep breath, click your heels together three times, and . . . whoa! We've touched down in a time even before PC's! Take a look! In this fascinating era people who have deadlines they need to meet or even everyday tasks they need to concentrate on can close their doors, take their phones (yes, landlines exist) off the hook, and have an excellent chance of having an entire uninterrupted work day to themselves. Are work tasks easier? Hell no. Well then, are bosses more flexible? Ha! Bet me. But here in the dim times people understand, as they have for thousands of years previously, that intellectually demanding tasks take concentration, and that requires uninterrupted time for the people performing the tasks. Alas, we cannot stay; everything is starting to swirl and - crap - I have a project due tomorrow and we're back in the endless interruption that is the twenty-teens!
How did we get from there to here? Well, in the beginning there were pagers (anybody remember them), and then e-mail and then IM and finally, nearly universal ownership of smartphones, and as our e-gadgetry increased in sophistication, we gained the technological ability to harass and distract ourselves continuously. But the technology platform by itself is neutral – neither good nor bad. It took a curious cultural shift over several generations to co-opt the technology into serving the e-madness we now suffer under. Somehow, in a progression no sociologist has yet explained to my satisfaction, our culture has come to believe that everybody needs to be accessible to everyone at all times. This is a historically bizarre notion that has made us all crazy. Or, at least, twitchingly neurotic. Do you feel anxious enough to puke by midmorning? Is it 5:00 PM and you feel as if you’ve accomplished nothing the entire day? Welcome to the club! As the articles and scholarly papers at the links below explain, these are universal complaints of our age, and unregulated checking of e-mail is a major contributing factor for many people.
I, along with an increasing number of others, have chosen to limit my access to e-mail. I check twice a day at most on work days, and less often on weekends. Call me a Luddite (you say that as if it’s a bad thing), but I feel so much better! I’ve tried to be deliberately provocative here; every culture has its sacred cows, and few things are more sacred today than our personal-communal addictions to our personal-communications technology. Or do I misunderstand? Feel free to comment on the Electronic (mis)Communications blog page.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141203142644.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/10096907/Email-raises-stress-levels.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/3036061/the-future-of-work/you-arent-imagining-it-email-is-making-you-more-stressed-out http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/mindfulness/ (Anderson Cooper / 60 Minutes)