Schwartz interviewed in his article some people who checked their e-mail constantly even once they got home from work, people who checked their e-mail while making phone calls, and people who just had to take their laptops with them on vacation. E-mail is certainly taking up too much of their time. But should we blame the technology? Maybe these people should just leave their laptops off and spend some time with their families. Maybe they just need to learn how to relax. I don't think e-mail is their problem, I think work in general is. Personally, I probably get about 15 e-mails a day, tops. And this takes a total of maybe an hour to get through, probably less. If I didn't have access to e-mail I would definitely survive. I delete most of it anyways. I may struggle if I needed to get in contact with a professor, but that would be about the only problem that may arise for me. Technology has given us so many other means of contact, no one should have to rely so much on e-mail.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Is the technology the problem, or is it the user?
Are e-mails taking up to much of our time? Well, this is a very general question that cannot be quite so generally applied. If you're a business executive, a professor, or a politician, then they probably are, but if you're a college student like me, you might be getting along about the same as you were before the e-mail craze began. I can understand the points made in Schwartz's article: because e-mail is more efficient we, generally, communicate more frequently. More efficiency means more work. It makes perfect sense. For the people who are receiving hundreds of e-mails a day, I empathize. But at the same time, I don't think everything is completely out of their control.
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I like the point you made about those executives who are bogged down by email, They need to learn to chill and relax. I can't imagine having to bring a laptop on vacation to check email. It just wouldn't be a vacation. However I know I would be missing important info if I had to miss checking my email on a weekday. I get alot of notifications about Ctools and from GSI's and about my classes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about the executives overusing their email as well. If they didn't check their inboxes so often and respond to unimportant messages, they probably wouldn't receive as many total messages in the long run. Instead, they could pop down to someone's office, hold a brief conversation, and save the time spent to send 10 emails back and forth with very brief messages in each. I too receive about the same amount of emails per day as you. However, I am not as good about deleting the junk. I let myself wonder if I will ever need the information each email contains in the future, even though I had gotten by fine without it all along. Because of this, email is a big time waster for me.
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