The Too-Much-Information Age, Part Infinity

My beloved HTC One S. Well,
not MY HTC One S. Mine has
a photo of my kid drinking
from a beer bottle.

I like technology. I am glued to my smart phone during every commute—it lets me begin my work day while I’m still on the bus, and when you’re paid hourly like I am, that matters. I have even been known to play Candy Crush on my phone while in the bathroom. (Hey, when you’re enjoying a few minutes of privacy away from your small children, every second counts.)

But at some point, enough is enough. The urge to multitask, sometimes on multiple devices, can go too far. At some point your mind becomes so divided that it can’t focus on any one thing anymore.

Take my boss. Please! (ba-dum-pa.) Kidding. I like and respect her very much.

But she is in a different office than I am, halfway across the country. So 99% of our interactions are via IM or phone.

Our phone calls often go something like this: 

Me: Did you see the e-mail that I sent you yesterday about Project K?

Boss: Uh… let me look. (15 seconds of silence while she scrolls through 200+ e-mails)

Me: Hang on, I’ll forward it so that it’s at the top of your list.

Boss: OK. ………… It hasn’t arrived yet … While we’re waiting, I see an e-mail about that question that Department X sent to you. What did you tell them?

Me: I told them we could...  (We proceed to discuss the other issue for 10 minutes)

Boss: That reminds me, we need to schedule a meeting with Department X about Project Z.

Me: Agreed. I’ll put something on the calendar. Sooooo, back to Project K…

Boss: Oh, yeah. I see the e-mail now. Oh, I just got an IM from Department J about something they need posted urgently. Gotta run. Sorry! Let’s discuss tomorrow.

E-mail is a fairly useless communication tool, with the high volume of e-mails that many of us get. Imagine receiving 100 paper memos a day and being expected to read and answer them all. (Remember memos?) I get relatively little e-mail at this job, compared to other jobs I've had—yet if an e-mail gets buried far enough down in my inbox that I have to scroll, it may as well cease to exist.

Instant messaging is better, but not much better. My boss and I had the following exchange today:

See how she answered my question? Except… not. Maybe she was answering someone else’s question, and that person received my answer in their own chat window.

This is a daily thing. And it’s not just my boss. I can hardly blame the poor woman. She is one of millions of Americans being asked to accomplish more in a workday than is humanly possible. We should take to the streets! But to demand—what? That they take our multitasking tools away? Many of us would rather undergo a root canal.

True Confessions of an Information Junkie

My own husband and I can’t stay off our smart phones during date nights. It began innocently enough:

Me: “I’m so happy we’re out without the kids for a change! And I'm excited about this restaurant. I’m going to do a check-in on Facebook.”

Him: “Me too!”

Me: “Oh, I didn’t show you this picture from the other day. Check it out.”

Him: “That reminds me, I was going to show you this article about…”

Before we know it, we’ve spent half the date staring at small screens. We have to make a conscious effort to put the phones down and have a face-to-face conversation.

I never thought I'd come this far. It's a slippery slope from here to cyborg.