I feel absolutely no need to be connected to the world 24/7. I love my computers and am connecting myself to people during work and even in many hours in the evenings. But I just don't feel the need to essentially have a computer on me at all times of the day. I like to disconnect every once in awhile.
I know some people who have their devices and are able to put them down, but there are far too many people these days who rely on their electronics. I'm not a texter--I don't see the need. No, I'm not a fan of talking on the phone, but if I need to ask someone something, I just call them or email them. The husband and I will text maybe 10 times a month, mostly b/c he's in meetings a lot and if I need to get ahold of him to tell him I'm leaving work or something, that's when we'll do it. We don't have full conversations that way, though.
I guess it really just annoys me because of the people who think they're multi-tasking by texting/emailing/surfing while in meetings or while they're supposed to be having conversations with you. It's obvious they aren't paying attention to where they physically are and that's just rude. If I'm giving up my time to be with you, you should give your attention to me in return. Plus we can get this meeting out of the way more quickly if you just pay attention.
I'm seeing this need to be connected running rampant around work. Almost everyone has some sort of fancy device to connect to the outside world. Has it come in handy before? Absolutely. My coworker just took pictures of some notes I took on the dry erase board and emailed the picture to me. But is it typically more a hindrance than anything? YES. If this meeting is that unimportant to you, then why are you here? Couldn't I just tell you what we talked about when we're done? I'll have to do that anyway.
(and now you can all go back to surfing your on iPhone or Blackberry...I know some of you probably even read this post on one! I hope you're not offended...I just think we're losing the value of in-person interaction.)
2 comments:
I agree with this, 100%. And I have to admit that I'm guilty of it sometimes. Having a phone with internet access makes it so easy to do everything -- Facebook, Twitter, etc. -- but it's easy to get addicted to it. Last weekend I made the conscious effort to put everything aside for one day, and it was wonderful. I think I'm going to try to do that every weekend -- just to decompress and clear my head.
Is this the "alienating readers" post? :)
I have to say I agree. Yes, I have a BlackBerry and sometimes it's easier to respond quickly to an e-mail on there than to get on the computer. But I think it is super, super rude to be doing that when someone else should be having your attention. But I'm also not a person who feels that because I have a BB, that means I must respond to an e-mail as soon as I get it, either.
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