Here’s a question I’ve pondered a lot lately. Do people need to have an "always on" connection? I don’t mean that in the broadband sense; I mean it in the communication sense. Sure, having an "always on" Internet connection is handy when you’re at a computer, but as a human being, I don’t think being connected all the time is a good thing.
In fact, I tend to think the level of hyper-communication we have in our technological world is making us dumber. I mean if you’re working and living in "interrupt mode" all day every day, your powers of concentration go down the toilet. At some point, it seems like people forget HOW to concentrate.
Even at libraries or movies, people have their cell phones or text messaging devices. If there’s one place you might want to concentrate, it’s a library. I mean reading and studying presumably require concentration. Fortunately, at least at our library, they have banned cell phone use. (I love our library anyway, but the little "no cell phones" sign makes me love it more.)
Another thing that really bugs me is people who leave cell phones on during a meeting. Come on, you’re already *talking* to people at a meeting. Do you need to talk to more? I see people sort of lovingly fondling their cell phone as if they are just waiting to be interrupted. They can’t think of anyone to talk to, so they hug their phone a little closer waiting for someone to call and interrupt their day.
Along those lines, today, I was taking to someone who brought up one of my absolute pet peeves in the whole world: speakerphones. Talk about a concentration destroyer. Back in my cubicle days, I worked in an editorial department. I had the sad experience of being located in a cubicle near a sales guy. He insisted on dialing, talking on the phone, and even listening to his voice mail using his speakerphone.
The thing that most infuriated me was that he actually had an office with a door. He could have a) closed the door or b) picked up the phone. The company could have saved a whole lot of money in lost employee productivity by ripping out that phone and replacing it with a simple featureless phone. I’m sorry, but the only people who really *NEED* speakerphone features are people with no arms.
In addition to destroying their concentration, this sort of sick love affair with communication seems like it’s actually driving people farther apart. Instead of talking to the person in front of you, you rudely answer your cell phone. We all actually feel LESS important because we’re just one interruption away from obscurity.
So as I sit here in absolute silence, I revel in the fact that I can concentrate. It seems to be becoming a lost art.