Kill Your Computer?
Remember those old science fiction movies where machines turn on man and must be destroyed?
There’s been a lot in the news lately about email addiction. Seems some people check theirs 30 or 40 times an hour, according to this article in the WSJ yesterday. Others decry a new malady of “email addiction”–possibly 11 million sufferers worldwide, according to ABC News. Oooh.
Helpful tips abound: Never check your email first thing in the morning, check it only at set times during the day, if an email chain grows to more than three pick up the phone, never email to just say “thanks” or “me too,” set a timer while processing email, leave your BlackBerry out in the rain, institute ”no email Fridays” at work. An executive coach named Marsha Egan has come up with a 12-step program for emailaholics; it’s here, with snarky comments from Paul McNamara. (If you’re too busy checking your email, here’s one with just 9 steps.)
So is this an emergency, or what?
Working Girl is going to go out on a limb and proclaim email as an unalloyed good.
Email makes it easy to contact our friends overseas. Email leaves a record of travel arrangements, business deals, and. . . .everything. Email is forcing people to become clearer, briefer writers. Email has magically made spelling and punctuation important again. Email makes it possible for someone in Podunkville, Oklahoma, to “meet” someone in London, New York, or Bangkok. Email saves time because it’s faster than the phone. Email allows you to respond to requests when it’s convenient to you, not to the requester. Email gives you the chance to think before answering. Email hands the business advantage to people who are comfortable with reading and writing, which is going to make the world a better place because readers and writers are Superior People.
Maybe WG’s getting carried away here.
Still. If it weren’t for their laptops and crackberries, wouldn’t people who are addicted to email just be addicted to something else? Surely compulsive inbox-checking is better than booze, ciggies, and little white pills.
Long live email!
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Write on! Email is a good thing, I agree. Its benefits far outweigh its detriments. People can have OCD’s on anything – that doesn’t make the “anything” bad, it means the individual needs help. Vive Email.
No email Fridays? I don’t get it. Are people supposed to communicate to the same degree but by different means, like phone calls and cubicle pop-ins? As if those are any less disruptive? Crazy. Reason #176 that I’m glad I work for myself.
I think Working Girl is on to something with this comment: “If it weren’t for their laptops and crackberries, wouldn’t people who are addicted to email just be addicted to something else?”
Exactly. Email itself isn’t the problem – it’s the way people manage it, or let it manage them. They’re letting it get in the way of other activities and interactions. Even the terminology of “12-step programs” and “quitting cold turkey” comes from addiction. Some addictions can’t be handled any other way than by complete withdrawal; some we have to find away to live with, because it’s just not feasible to give them up (like food).
In any case, I’m far from an e-mail addict (I’m probably more dependent on my RSS reader), and have long since found it to be far more good than bad in my life.
It’s obvious that the people who read THIS blog are sensible people.
Our little corner of the universe is so sane! How can we get this to spread??
Email is great and convenient. Without it, a lot of businesses wouldn’t be where they are right now. Still, 30 to 40 times an hour? That’s like checking your email every two minutes. I think people who do this should take note of their habits. They could easily be doing something else more productive. While I don’t support no email Fridays, I do think it would be best if people don’t overdo it.
Paul McNamara’s snarky comments had me howling with laughter. Possibly I was anxious for the distraction away from considering a tendency to email addiction, although apparently we should be calling it compulsion. I think compulsion is more accurate but somehow, the word addiction gets bandied about so freely nowadays I’d rather admit to the addiction than compulsion, which sounds more serious.
What about blog addiction then, eh?