Communications Overload
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
At any given moment while at work, I have two email accounts open, a telephone, and a cell phone next to me. And the cell phone can receive messages either through voice mail or text messages (I haven’t even gotten the internet feature yet). The fact is there are a lot of ways to reach me. And it drives me up the wall.
Which one do I answer first?
My husband has a similar situation, except he also has the internet on his cell phone and an instant messaging system that overrides all others at work.
How is it possible to focus?
All these instantaneous methods of communication often lead others to share their big and small thoughts with others, which if you quantify and multiply these, leads to thousands of messages sent to one person a day. If you put these thoughts on social media like Facebook, they are further shared to the nth degree.
I’d be quite happy to return to my childhood where I would tell my mom where I was going, play outside with one person all day, and return home for dinner. There weren’t a whole lot of conversations going on except for play. And I had a lot of time to think and expand on those thoughts and be creative.
I’ve gotten into the practice of not speaking with my husband all day out of respect for his total information overload. We catch up when we get home. I’ll only contact him if we are running out of milk.
Add two talkative little boys into the mix, and home life is full of conversation, but manageable. There’s a little give and take, sometimes interruption, but it’s old school and I like it.
Maybe soon I’ll get smart and consolidate everything onto my phone and get on with it. Or do what successful CEOs say they do – only check email once or twice a day at most. Sounds good to me! Other than that, all this messaging is a terrible time suck.
So if you think I’m ignoring you, I’m just fried. If it’s not urgent, let it go. Thank you!
Veronica MacDonald Ditko is originally from the Jersey Shore, but married and settled in northern New Jersey. Her journalism career started a decade ago after studying Psychology and Anthropology in Massachusetts. She has written for several newspapers and magazines including The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, Happi, Chemical Week, The Hawthorne Press, The Jewish Standard, Suite101.com and more.