I called my x-colleague in the US over the weekend. She still works for the same telco/wireless manufacturer. I left 3 years ago.
During our conversations, we both admitted we turned off our mobile phones most of the time and only use it when necessary. The last time I sent a text message was months ago, but she is worse, she has never send a text message and she dosen't want to know! We don't want to know about podcasting, Skype and many other multimedia tools because we actually DON'T want to be connected all the time. Furthermore we both prefer to have hardcopies for serious reading so that we can scribber notes and highlight pages as our brains race along.
How advance are we (me and my friend) in the sense of making use of communications/multimedia technology? Are we backward because we are not tuned to all these modern gadgets? OR are we sensible users? Is the world over-connected? How absolutely necessary most of the 'connections' are? For example my friend is complaining the IM feature at her office intranet meant she is constantly distracted by messages coming from her boss (her boss, a non-techi would send messages requesting tech info during her meetings), and others, effectively making many of her days (my friend) unproductive.
One of my MANY managers (they kept changing their jobs for better promotions!) used to cliam proudly she has 'open door' policy. But she was never there. So, would the same effect will one day be the relationship between my friend and her office IM (for example)? She would just refuse to answer the IM messages (thus open-door but never there!). Then what good would be to have the IM feature to start with? Could we wonder alound IF she is the only person in her organization feels that way?
I think people have to make conscious effort to make effective use of the technological tools we are overly shower with (I am easily distracted by messages and things therefore is a SELF-confessed NON-effective person, but see the problems). AND people have to 'think' what their actions can work on other person. A virtual-society is no different than a physical-society. What works and not-works in the physical world should not be any different than the virual environment. Take the case of my friend and her boss, it would be wise from her boss to make appointment with her before hand regarding the meetings. Set out expectations, brief her about the meetings, the kind of inputs expected from her, the time duration of the meeting, who will be at the meeting, ASK if she can assit her with tech info etc. IF the boss is doing that, not only they can pre-discuss the do-and-don't about the meeting, the discussions would clear up many points that might be crucial (therefore effectively the boss would protrate a better picture of herself), my friend would be able to schedule/organize her agenda more effectively, and her mood would be in better shape etc. We must also understand emotion has snowball effect. If my friend is not happy (or happy), her vibes would send out the messages, her mood would affect those around her, her performance would depend on her mood ...
It is good to 'feel' connected. It is good to be able to reach someone when you need them. BUT perhaps we should value the SOS receipents, we should care a bit more. We should also want to make our casual-connections such as calling a friend to say HI, a happy occassion. Having the ease to connect does not mean we should call a long-distance friend at 3 in the morning!
A car is a tool. If we use it correctly it will take us to places. The consequences of misusing it with speed can kill.
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1 comment:
hi Cindy, this is a great observation- I don't want to be contacted all the time either. But with technologies- uses shift, for instance you can't be skyped when you put off your computer, but people can still phone you. Even with skype I often skype by appointment, which really works well for me.
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