It was 7:40 AM and I had five new emails on my BlackBerry. One was a promotion from a store, but the other four were important. Not necessarily first thing in the morning importance, but emails that needed thoughtful replies or somehow altered my day, and all together required much more brain power than I could muster with my unbrushed teeth and hair.
Yet, my mind is churning, my heartbeat increasing with this information overload before my feet even touch the ground. What did I write in that previous email? Where is my planner so I can add this assignment’s due date? My phone had been off for six hours. That is almost an email an hour. Does anyone sleep anymore or are we becoming slaves to our computers, smartphones, and tablets? My friend, who is really behind on the times and does not have a smartphone, turns on her computer and checks her email before she uses the bathroom in the morning. Why? Because she has a fear that she will be missing out on important information. A fear. This is nuts. It is no longer acceptable to not always be reachable.
I can no longer go on vacation or even away for the weekend without receiving dozens of emails, some important while others are not. For the messages that need my attention, I have to construct intellectual responses and then even I have to admit sometimes expect an almost instantaneous answer. I am missing out on living life and experiencing what is going on around me, because it is assumed that I am always “on” even during “off” times. It is a wonder I even shut my phone when I finally go to sleep after sifting through advertisements, happenings, personal, and school related emails. This takes hours of my day, each day. E-mail was supposed to be efficient but because it is so easy to send, most of my inbox is full of junk. Who wants to deal with all of this? Not me. Maybe there should be a price for each email sent. This would decrease the amount of incoherent, and then out of necessity, revisions of the same messages, information that is just not important and can wait until I see you in person, and of course all the spam.
On second thought, a better solution might just require some self restraint. Think before you send out a mass e-mail and make sure all the information the other people need to know is there and nothing extra. E-mails should be clear and concise. I guess maybe like texting without all the abbreviations. E-mail would be much less stressful if it was used in a productive manner and the expectation did not include immediate acknowledgment. Of course, many people will say without the immediacy e-mail defeats the point, but I am sure a balance could be found. Life is about equilibrium.
Instant accessibility to information, movies, online shopping, and all your contacts is the way of the future and I am not suggesting we change that. I only think we should change out attitude toward what we can expect of the person on the other side of that smartphone, and ourselves. Do you want to be constantly responding to messages without having time to breathe? Probably not. Think before you send!
