[Air-l] email is 'out'

[Richard Forno]

On 10/14/06 9:22 AM, "Sarah Robbins" <intellagirl at gmail.com> wrote:

> Deanya: I think I have to disagree with you about availability and overall
> productivity. The "distributed attention" type model has shown that today's
> students have a bit more ability to multitask well than we do.

I'd have to lean in favor of Deanya's point. I could be wrong, but I'd posit
that students/kids/people may be able to multitask (e.g., do more
concurrently) but question how WELL each thing gets done. Obviously, if
you're sitting on hold in a call center, you can multitask fairly
productively, but I daresay if one or more of your tasks involves deep
cranial cogitation (DCC, my new trademarked term, ha!) those tasks might
suffer in quality because you're unable to focus.

> There's certainly a time to shut it all off and focus on one task or one
> form of communication but as someone who multitasks all the time myself, I
> can't with good conscience preach to them that they'll have to ditch their
> connectivity to fit in to corporate culture.

Continuous connectivity seems to be the new norm in corporations if for no
other reason than for everyone to feel important and "wired."  (Borgified?)
Frankly, there are times when I wonder if we need to hold meetings in person
or not, because all the people around the table are busy twiddling with
their Crackberries and only giving 1/2 of an ear to the person in the room
who's talking about the stuff they're supposedly gathered to discuss.

In the corporate world, I wonder how much of that Crackberry-this and
SMS-that are presenting the illusion of being knowledgeable, in-control, and
otherwise on top of things....or whether it contributes to info-glut and a
broad awareness that lacks depth.

Granted, I have no formal evidence to support my claim here, but I think
there's too much emphasis on "always-on" or "always-available" that it's
borderline addiction.   I've seen some MSM articles on vacations that keep
mentioning the need for folks to be able to shut it all down and step into
realspace for a while.  I don't think that's such a bad idea, really.

> Just my opinion as a techno-addict.

I wonder about that, myself.  Given my recent musings on this whole concept,
I wonder if I'm a recovering techno-addict or an up-and-coming Luddite.
Will have to do the differential analysis sometime to find out.  :)

-rick