Recently I received a comment from Alison Dennehy on a post I had written about my Blackberry Addiction. She was doing research on “the re-location of the temporal, spatial and psychological boundaries between work and non-work caused by smart mobile technologies such as the Blackberry“.
In other words, how do these devices affect our life/work balance?
Intrigued, I volunteered to further her research by blogging once again about this topic, and asking my readers to add their comments about it on the post (please do, by the way).
As fate would have it, on the day I was going to write this post I read an article by Ben Stein in the NY Times entitled “Connected, Yes, But Hermetically Sealed”. It was Ben’s take on the breakdown of those boundaries Alison spoke of.
It was a lament about how our devices have become “modern-day balls and chains with which we shackle ourselves“. He sums up his feelings this way:
“The cellphone and the PDA have basically replaced thought”
Whoa.
Danger Will Robinson! When I read that I immediately heard that warning in my head (courtesy of the robot B-9 in the classic TV series “Lost in Space” – yes, I am a child of the 60s).
There is indeed a clear danger here, and lines that can be crossed, whereby the new gadgets of our digital world could fundamentally change how humanity evolves. For the worse.
Is that hyperbole? I think not.
While I’m certainly not yet at the point where I would make the came kind of declaration as Ben Stein and say my Blackberry does all of my thinking (although some folks may say that about me), I can envision a world in the not-too-distant future where:
- Our legs are not as strong because we made too much of a habit of e-mailing or texting someone 10 feet away.
- Our eyes aren’t as powerful looking beyond two feet in front of us since we spent too much time looking at our computers and devices.
- Our ears are only conditioned to optimally hear sounds that are either delivered right into the sides of our ears, or through earplugs.
- Our sense of smell is greatly diminished because we increasingly didn’t take the time to literally smell the roses, and because our computers and devices don’t have a smell (now that would be an interesting product, wouldn’t it – “Computer Scent”).
- Our taste buds grow smaller and less sensitive because of our habits of working all of our devices and eating at the same time, thus diverting our attention from savoring our meals.
- Our language skills decline because the art of human conversation nearly disappears, in favor of shorthand IMing (or truncating to 140 characters) virtually all communications.
- Our brain capacity diminishes because our digital technology does too much of our thinking for us (think math, think spelling, etc).
Yep, this all could happen to humans if we overdo this stuff. The human species has constantly adapted and changed depending on its surrounding environment and needs for survival. Our current edition is no different.
We must be careful. We must heed the danger. We need to draw our lines in the sand as to what’s a proper balance of “plugged” and “unplugged”.
So, balance your e-mailing with lots of personal conversation. Take a break from Twittering, walk outside and take in the wonderful details of a forest, or a mountainside, or a lake shore. Pull out the iPod earplugs and listen to the sweet sounds of birds. Step into a garden, or into a bakery at 7AM, and inhale – deeply. Go to a restaurant and turn off all of your devices, order your favorite meal, and savor every bite. Handwrite a two-page letter to a friend you haven’t contacted in years. Do a little math in your head every now and then.
Do it all for the sake of humanity. Really.
Help me get those robot images out of my head.
(And oh yes, do it for our own sanity and happiness as well)
Quick, what’s 36 times 82? No cheating. In your head. Without rubbing your head. 
And don’t forget to add your thoughts for Allison, on your take regarding this life/work balance, in the comments or in a separate post. Thanks!
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A quick postscript for my friend Joanna Young, who recently restarted her great website Confident Writing. Please go over there and welcome her back – and soak in her great writing, excellent advice and witty warmth. Well done Joanna!
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Terry, oh man I had thoughts of Twilight Zone as I read, very scary to think what we might become! I love technology and social media but I have resisted being uber connected. No blackberry, or iphone and no pressing need to be ever connected. I have watched groups gather and text rather than talk to each other. That is heartbreaking. Many have forgotten how to compose letters because they have become accustomed to text shorthand. And if you have ever watched a cashier try to figure out change when a computer is down – painful. We must own the technology not be owned by it and for me this means being willing to be disconnected and unashamed.
I used to be good at math. I used to be able to write long hand. I used to be able to spell reasonably well without Word replacing 1/10 of the words I type. I “broke” my eyes as a kid by reading every piece of fiction I could find.
Today it takes an effort to do math – and when I try to go fast I’m always wrong. Even my block print lettering is atrocious. Word – oh Word – how you outsmart me so often! And as for reading – it’s just the internet news sites now.
Is my life richer now than it was when I was a kid? I’m thinking … no.
Hogwash! I do not use a PDA. I have a fancy phone, but it’s for calling people I need to talk to and for occasionally doing email on the road.
Face2Face will never be replaced. This is akin to saying we will someday achieve paperless offices. That was proven wrong…to the point that people have MORE paper now than ever before, in their offices.
I can’t do your math calculation, but then…I couldn’t do it before cell phones. I’m not a math person.
All of these new tools are just that – tools. Those who will be slaves to them, would have been slaves regardless – if not to their PDA, then to something else.
These tools, used correctly, allow us to manage time and to get out more. The better to spend time in the mountains or at the beach. The better to curl up with a good book (a physical book) in front of a crackling fire. The better to get our grandkids outside to build a fort or play hide n’ seek.
Worry not… the world is embracing technology, yes. But, those of us who still adore the handshake, and the eye to eye embrace, will win out.
Didn’t someone warn us about reading Ben Stein and all the bad things that could do to us?
I can’t help but hope. When we’re overwhelmed, it’s the sunrise and the sky that relieves us. It’s the music that calms our souls. It’s the presence of another person and the touch that says “there, I’m here.” that’s irreplaceable. I’m voting for that. I think humanity will win out.
The trade off for efficiency seems to be addiction. The faster we can do something the more dependant we become on the tool that affords us the increase in speed. At first the attraction is the ability to do more work in less time, leaving more free time to relax and enjoy our lives. This plan, however, backfires when we use that “free” time to do more work and become even more efficient. Before you know it your “relaxing” by the pool with your Blackberry and your laptop. The little bit of free time you had turns into an opportunity to do more work simply because you can.
As much as technology is helping us we need to make sure that we take the time to be human.
I’m totally with Liz. Working from home – and having so much of my business be virtual – I found I needed to building into my day moments for sunsets, picnics, music and face time: it’s just too easy to wave off the rest of life with an ‘I’m busy’…
Which is where Brian’s point about efficiency, dependancy and attraction seems to come in. But the trouble seems to be that most folks are going so fast they don’t think to think about it much – and can’t themselves really tell why.
The question I try to ask myself when I’m tempted to cross the line (or catch myself after I’ve blown right on past it) is, ‘Why do I feel like I have to do more now – and just who’s in charge here anyway?’
There’s a great book by Carl Honore called In Praise of Slow that really highlights the conflicted nature of our relationship with efficiency, tools and speed-driven lifestyles…
Seriously, I have noticed that since I switched to the iPhone from the Blackberry I spend less time fielding email because the iPhone is not as efficient as the Blackberry when it comes to email.
But more importantly I don’t have the urge to check and respond to emails.
I went three years with a Blackberry. Then it died and I didn’t replace it. And, my world didn’t stop either.
I liked being “unplugged.” However, I’ve recently purchased another. Now, I’m maybe a little more wise about using it – if only because I remember how annoying it was to have my friends Blackberrying instead of talking to me when I was right there, in front of them, sharing a meal.
Humanity is changing and adapting, and as the newness of this stuff adapts and changes faster than the human species — I think we’ll find a happy medium.
Balance is what we choose. I choose to walk long in the woods and to spend hours in front of the computer. I choose to leave all electronics at home for a weekend and revel in my thoughts near the ocean. It’s choice. The species will choose and will adapt. I’m thinking humans will choose new ways to find balance and joy – even if some of their joy comes from playing with shiny new toys!
Great entry! Before any of this occurs, I suspect the technology will evolve differently. Such genetic changes take a long time, and we’re advancing the baseline technology too quickly.
Personally I use some tactics to avoid too much technology dependence. I put my Crackberry on a shelf at home at night; it took discipline, but it works. I make sure I have at least 1 hour of non-technical relaxing before sleep. I spend time to think with a pen and paper to keep my writing and free-flow thinking up. If I miss-spell a word when typing, I don’t use spell-check, I go back and re-type it, which makes me think of the right spelling and improves my typing…I think…
What does concern me is when we start plugging this stuff into our heads…yikes!
Love the Lost in Space reference, but it feels sorta sad and melancholic that you must explain them.
I am a no blackberry person. Except the kind you pick from a bush and pop into your mouth. What we call analog. Yum.
Terry,
I’ve been a Pod-head for more than 5 years now and have watched it slowly slide from simple social poding or wanting to escape the noise of everyday life or mindless chatter to a full-blown dependency on my own brand of noise and mindless chatter. I now see it was merely a gateway into a now full-blown media addiction with my new smart phone at its epicenter. I promise, from this point forward I will break the chains that bind the mind and senses…at least until the DT’s (Dig-lerium Tremens) kick in. Snark aside, thanks for the reminder.
Reminds me of the humans in the recent Pixar film “Wall-E”.
I think that the inventory of withering capabilities is a little overblown and alarmist, but the point that we nurture what we use is quite valid.
But we’d be foolish to blame the tools. Crackberry addiction is actually addiction to feeling constantly needed and productive.
Used for good and not evil, my blackberry means that (even at an extremely busy time for my company) I can afford to play hooky for 30 minutes to accompany my daughters and au pair to the park on a workday. It means I can work from anywhere and roll calmly with severe airline delays.
Something I argue is the catchiest aspect of Twitter is that you get to control your access to it. The conversation is there, and streaming by you, but it is not piling up in an inbox and demanding your attention for every message. You can go to it when you want to go to it. You can turn your desktop client for it off and on when you need to.
The other irony to this vilification of technology is that it’s not the technology we feel compelled towards, it’s the human voices and messages and contacts and connections.
Those who would say in a heartbeat “it would be really helpful to stop Twittering for a week” would never say “it would be really helpful not to talk to any of your social support system for a week.” Realistically, many old building blocks of culture and community have fallen away. That some technological forms of them are building back up, can be wonderful if we use it wisely.
Addiction and loss of balance in how you spend your time are always possible, whether technologically enabled or not. I heartily encourage people to constantly examine their engagement with and joy in life (actually, I use my Twitter messages to do that almost every day), but I do not quite subscribe to the scenarios (tongue and cheek?) laid out here.
Thanks for the mention Terry!
What a fascinating conversation you’ve prompted here. I agree we need to relearn how to connect to our natural environment but it’s not just IT we need to keep in check – it’s the draw of TV, of shops, of work (and more work and more work), of spending hours commuting.
I shifted to working 3 days a week in my last paid employment so I had more time to do ‘real life’ stuff and it was the Blackberry that helped me to do that. I could keep in touch with things I needed to know while I was away, and could arrive back at work feeling calmly confident, knowing what I was going to do once I sat back down at my desk.
It all comes down to us making choices about how we live, and taking responsibility for the choices we make.
Joanna
I don’t think I have ever had a work-life balance. For me there is just life — and work/achievement is part of that. A Blackberry actually helps provide the flexibility that can make work bearable. As Laura says, it means you can still be “connected” (if necessary) while going to the park with your kids on a workday.
Having said all this, have you noticed how bad your handwriting is? Mine is terrible. As I mostly use a keyboard, my handwriting has become very lazy and often hard to read. Oh, and I can type faster than I can write, so if I am trying to keep up with my ideas I will turn on the computer.
Which is almost the opposite of the machine “replacing thought”. It accelerates it.
I do a lot of work in the area of what drives adult humans and why is our brain so easily led astray by things like unimportant email instead of critical strategic planning…the PDA rules our world because we are such visual creatures. The vast majority of us are driven by what is in front of us and our computers and PDA’s are there much of the time these days. Find ways to get other really important things in front of you and you will be blown away by the power the visual has on directing your brain! Cool stuff and great thread!
I work at a University dedicated to the advancement of technology. They encourage us to plug in. We don’t have desks that are “ours.” We hotel (take our laptops and work where we feel comfortable). We are on IM all day, and at any given moment at least 5 of us are on Facebook!
In response to Yvonne, we have gone paperless. Since we have to bring all of our belongings to work and home every day we can’t have paper. I might have, at most, 20 pieces of paper in my bag.
Yes, we all have Crackberries. We text and message from across the table, but we also text and message from across the country. Since we are not always traveling, it is nice to stay in the habit of texting when we are in the same city.
Even though we are so plugged in during the week, we unplug on the weekends. After about 4:00pm on Fridays, you cannot hardly contact anyone via messenger, email or text. You have to call them or make sure all of our plans are settled before we leave on Fridays.
Technology rocks. If you don’t embrace it, you will get left in its dust!
Rock On!
Lane J
2952?
I have been endeavoring to unplug for a time each day. It’s a huge rush and truly seems to slow the march of time. I think it is our responsibility to find ways to blend the incredible tools we have to make work easier with the fundamental things we need to do to balance our health. I Tweet, I am rarely without my laptop, I carry a cell phone, I also walk to the market, exercise, sit without tv and live by a buy local credo. It is, for me, a great mix.
First I must say I don’t and never had a Blackberry. With that said and my not totally understanding that particular obsession, I must say that I have mixed feelings.
With my iPhone, I have access to email, internet, phone, ect.. and I do check on things, but that is because I choose to see what’s up. I do not however open every email or reply to them, mostly because I can type so much faster on a regular keyboard and I know it will be inefficient.
I however do shoot off quick one sentence replies to acknowledge the sender or respond if something is needed.
I think that I am definatly more addicted to people being brief, but I’ve always looked for the best way to build the mouse trap.
I enjoy my access when I am waiting for an appointment or having a smoke. I am picky about who I use technology with which I think is a great point, I know a lot of ppl don’t get the full impact of the technology or are overloaded because it’s overused and it’s not used to be a quick communication. My 2 cents.
Great post Terry!
And here I was, just blogging about my iphone addiction…
What a great post.
I’ll admit, I don’t like humanity very much. Or rather, I prefer to deal with people from behind a screen rather than in person. I suppose that’s bad, isn’t it?
Terry,
Oh, yes, I think about all of this, too. Not to mention attention spans, manners, ability to spell without spellcheck (or to know when spellcheck isn’t catching something)….
I was just commenting to Amy about this subject. I try not to start too many of these new connected habits, for fear of losing too much of my humanity. And my kid… how will she stay fit, healthy, connected to real life in 2.0 times? Warning, indeed!
Regards,
Kelly
I love the post. And although I mostly agree with Tim about the dangers of listening to Ben Stein – I do see some truths.
First, I don’t have a a Blackberry or (gasp) even a regular cell phone. Most people look at me like I sprouted a second head when I mention this but it’s true. How do I manage? I live in a small town. Ninety percent of the places I go I can WALK to in less than 20 minutes. Plus I work from home.
That said, I am getting a cell phone, this week. However, it’s because my son is now old enough to be left home and I want him to be able to reach me in an emergency.
I don’t eschew all technology. I love my laptop! Her name is Lola
And although I fought it, I’m now using an electronic calendar and can’t imagine my life without it. It’s not that technology is making me forget things – time is taking care of that. But the calendar is a little like getting a memory upgrade for my middle aged brain.
I could see moving to a PDA or – yikes – even a Blackberry just so I can have my calendar with me where ever I go. In fact, if anyone invents a wireless calendar so I can have my calendar on the wall in the kitchen as well as on my laptop, I’ll be first in line to buy.
The biggest problem technology has created in my life is that when I’m working on a big project, I’ve had days go by without ever leaving the house. That’s just wrong.
However, because I have a laptop, I can now go and work where ever there’s an electrical outlet and an internet connection. I can work at the coffee shop, the library, my backyard or even another city.
Overall, I think technology has enhanced my life, not hurt it.
Andrea