Hello, My Name Is Bob, and I Check My Email While on the Toilet'

Hello, My Name Is Bob, and I Check My Email While on the Toilet'

 

By Ken Yarmosh : BIO| 05 Oct 2007

 

The Internet seems like an infinite source of information and knowledge, yet
we often allow it and other digital technology to be infinitely distracting.
Cell phones, e-mail, and IM are tried and true digital distractions. Today,
that's advanced to satellite television, social networks, and text
messaging.

 

These technologies create a sense of urgency due to their instantaneous or
mobile natures. We've allowed the dings, buzzes, and chimes to interrupt
everything from meals, meetings, and movies. We've yielded to urgency or
perhaps better put, been fooled into believing that next e-mail, phone call,
headline update, or text message is indeed urgent.

 

In 1967, Charles Hummel wrote an essay about the "tyranny of the urgent,"
where his point was not that we have insufficient time to accomplish tasks
but rather that we prioritize the urgent over the important: "We have left
undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those
things which we ought not to have done." Since his essay was written in a
less digital world, Hummel references the impact of the telephone on the
urgent, "A man's home is no longer his castle; it is no longer a place away
from urgent tasks because the telephone breaches the walls with imperious
demands." The latter part of the sentence could now read, "it is no longer a
place away from urgent tasks because cable, satellite, Internet, cell
phones, etc. breach the walls with imperious demands."

 

The urgent is synonymous with the now. It relates to the "What are you
doing?" question of Twitter, ostensibly the most egregious of urgency
offenders. In the always-on always-connected urgent world, so much time can
be spent "keeping up" with new stories, new e-mails, new text messages, and
new updates of various types that "keeping up" becomes a task itself. In
fact, it teeters on becoming the task of the day; the news of our lives
never stops.

 

But how much is too much? How many times a day should we check e-mail? How
many times a day should we allow the phone to interrupt us? How many times a
day do we need to find out what our friends are doing? How many times a day
should we get the headlines on what's happening in the world? Keeping up can
create a psyche of paralysis. If you don't keep up, you're "missing out on
something" but if you do, there's a good chance you aren't getting more
substantive or important things done (e.g., work, reading a book, listening
to a friend's problems, paying attention to the kids, etc.). The digital
urgency problem can reach a climax; it can evolve into an addiction.

 

It's no wonder that Blackberry's are referred to as Crackberry's or that
there are organizations dedicated to Internet recovery. The latest
statistics show that people are on social networking sites like MySpace or
Facebook three times as much as print or broadcast media sites. Recent
surveys by AOL indicate that e-mail users are checking their inboxes around
the clock and even in the bathroom due to the mobility of their devices.
Your friend's iPhone might be cool but you may want to pass on using it.

 

The interruption-filled lives so many people are leading have consequences.
Many schools and offices block social networking sites in part because of
the distraction issue and its implications on productivity. Lawmakers in
Arizona and Connecticut are considering banning text messaging while driving
for safety concerns. It is increasingly status quo to ignore friends and
family while tending to cell phones.

 

A society dominated by digital interruption, by the urgent, has the
potential to be less polite, less focused, less productive, less safe, and
arguably less intellectual. That does not disregard the good of digital
technology but rather questions how people are deciding to use it. Rudeness,
inattention, procrastination, and superficiality are not new problems.
Unfortunately, these tendencies are becoming more acceptable because we've
been convinced of the importance of our digitally connected lives.

 

In many recovery programs, one of the first steps to overcoming an addiction
is to admit there is a problem, "Hello, my name is Bob and I check my e-mail
while on the toilet." That may sound comical but without acknowledging the
worship of the urgent, there can be no change. Man must re-build the walls
of his digitally infiltrated castle. He must find his place of quiet, of
solace, of meditation, and of focus. The important must supersede the urgent
once again; it starts with the off switch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C2000-2007 TCS Daily



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