COMM 303 Blog #6

Welcome, You’ve Got An Addiction?!

In the December 2010 article on the “Must Read” section of the US Airways Magazine, John Freeman, author of the book “The Tyranny of E-mail” gives a synopsis of what the book is about. The article is about nine pages long, detailing the impact of email in the average receiver or sender of the web based mail. Exactly because it is nine pages long there is a lot covered, and I will not be discussing it all.

The article characterizes email as being positive as well as negative. The positive aspect about email is that it is quick. It can be sent from one side of the world to the other within “nanoseconds.” The bad part is that like most communication technology, it enables a somewhat of a solitary life.  

My previous blog gave you all a quick reminder to not forget how to communicate with people face-to-face. In this article it particularly points out the same issue, that email has caused a one way mode of communicating and that it takes the time we could have spent talking with actual human beings away.

As I get older, and hold an actual “adult job” I am sure I will be more like the people the author talks about in the article. Those cubicle individualized spaces that only produce the sounds of stroking keys and mouse clicks, and no actual human to human voice is heard throughout the building.

“It has been estimated, the average corporate worker will spend more than 40 percent of his or her day sending and receiving some two hundred messages.” (Freeman p. 2)

However, now, I use email mainly to communicate with my professors and the various organizations I am part of. As you will see though, is that the organizations have found it much easier to use another application to communicate what is going on.

I am part of four different organizations and clubs at UofL, and there is not a single one of them that doesn’t have a Facebook page. Realistically speaking, college students, if they are anything like me, wake up next to their cellphones and go immediately to their Facebook and Twitter accounts to check what they missed while they were in REM. That is what I do at least, even before checking my email I go to those social networks. The organizations have learned that those are the best ways to get in touch with their members, because like me, they go to email afterwards and sometimes they neglect it completely.

How many times have you gone to class and found yourself there with a scattered amount of people one minute before class is supposed to start? Yes, you missed that email the professor sent right before class at 7:37 a.m. telling you “Class is canceled due to illness, will resume on Thursday.” How mad are you that you didn’t check the email before you drove 20 minutes to class? And the sad part that you could have slept in a little longer? Realize, however, that those scattered classmates didn’t check their email either, and that not the whole class got up at 7 a.m. and checked it. The word spread through text messages or twitter, and if you aren’t a friend or a follower of those few individuals who obsessively check their email, then you missed out. Bye bye zzzs.

Now I keep my email open 24/7. I still don’t check it in the mornings before heading to school; I figure I can still do something productive by getting there early. The only times I get obsessive about email is if I am expecting a reply for a job, organization or volunteering position I have applied for, or more recently my study abroad application. Otherwise, my email goes unchecked most of the weekend. The need-to-know is all on Facebook, Twitter and more importantly my cellphone with its text messages. Maybe if I had email set up on my phone I’d refresh it as often as I do my social networks, but I don’t. My apologies?

The final point is that email doesn’t control my life yet, but if that’s the way it is in the “grown-up world,” I suppose I will have to adapt. I do still hope to overcome the ramifications of being stuck in front of a screen all day long. I like actual human contact, the expressions and palpable emotions are best when it’s face-to-face.

“The upshot is that we spend less time dealing face-to-face with other human beings and more time before a machine.” (Freeman p. 7)

Also, I am an astigmatism child, and the screen projected light has harmed my eyes to the point that my vision gets a little worse at my annual check-up. I want my eyes to always be able to see beyond this screen. Don’t you?

“In Singapore, for instance, 60 percent of children are myopic, up from 25 percent just 30 years ago. Close study of books, but also computers and videogames, is thought to be to blame.” (Freeman p. 6)