Slashdot Mirror
In Praise of Constant Connectivity
An anonymous reader wrote to mention an opinion piece on CNet discussing the realities of living in constant contact with the world at large. The author argues that the ability to connect actually creates time for us that we wouldn't have otherwise had. From the article: "... rather than obliterate our social lives, always-on connectivity and the increased flexibility it brings will allow us to break free from the office and actually socialise more. Sure, you'll be on call at unusual hours of the day, but think about how much more efficient you'll be -- particularly if your most productive hours aren't between 9am and 5:30pm! And besides, all newfangled technology comes with an 'off' switch should you find yourself needing some down time."
I generally do most of my work between the hours of 5:00pm - 5:00am the next morning.
Without constant connection to the internet, I don't know where I'd be.
See, my boss doesn't seem to get it that I'm not on call 24/7.
No thanks, I'll have the "off" switch and a sterile office, please. I've learned from experience that when something really, absolutley needs *doing*, sitting in a comfortable chair at home, with the Web at my fingertips, is a *massive* distraction.
That is not to say I am against ubiquitous connectivity - I long for the day mobile Web access is as simple as using a cellphone. With Google, dictionary.org, Wikipedia, various product review sites etc. on hand, making decisions and finding out information while on the move will be incredibly easy - in my *free time*.
For work though, I don't see "always on" as something as positive.
My always-on connection to the internet has been a major help when I need to get to a website in a bind, and I don't have to wait 3 minutes for a modem to dial in to an ISP, and then wait for some page to slowly load. Also my cell phone has proved invaluable in situations where I would have been stuck otherwise.
But along with that, the old tale of telemarketers and charity seekers calling at dinner time is still a pain (even if you have caller ID, it still is annoying to have the phone ring at such times unecessarily).
I'm sick of having near misses with innattentive pedestrians and cyclists with headphones on and staring into their mobiles[1]. These people aren't "connected to the world at large", they are disconnected from the real world around them. At some point my bike is going to make a connection with one of them as they step into the real world road without looking.
Baz
[1] yeah, I've seen cyclists pedalling and texting at the same time.
As the trainer of a junior soccer team it's impossible to handle all the administrative staff without email and soon this will be also true for web access. So constant connectivity might soon become as important as a phone if not more important.
O. Wyss
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
rather than obliterate our social lives, always-on connectivity and the increased flexibility it brings will allow us to break free from the office and actually socialise more. Sure, you'll be on call at unusual hours of the day, but think about how much more efficient you'll be
I can't say that always on "connectivity (i.e. a cell phone ringing at me, with someone wanting something at the other end) can do anything but hinder efficiency. Myself, and many programmers I know, are at peak productivity when they're not being constantly interrupted and/or bothered by other people.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
I think--hang on, I need to get my water from the microwave--it is great--just a minute, I need to take this call--because you can get so much--dude, I just an email with a chucknorrisfacts.com link--done--hold on, my instant message is flashing--with all of this--oh shit, my palm pilot alarm just went off. Now what was I saying?
It's funny and insightful. Take your pick. clueless
Chat with other atheists http://secularchat.org
"And besides, all newfangled technology comes with an 'off' switch should you find yourself needing some down time."
20 Minutes Into The Future:
Janie Crane: "Edison... an off switch!"
Metrocop: "She'll get years for that. Off switches are illegal!"
--Max Headroom Episode 16, "Blanks"
I know someone who almost never leaves his house now. All he does is stay on chat boards until all hours of the night.
Is he connected to the real world, or disconnected from the real world?
Of course, here I am on Slashdot at 4:12am NYC time, but then again, I'm at work. My friend however, is so internet addicted, I think he has given up his job.
Is the future about people living on welfare so that they can IM each other 24/7? That doesn't sound like a future I want anything to do with.
It's funny, but now that I have constant connectivity at home, I hardly use my computer(s) at home. I use them for email, but I barely websurf. If I want to do that, I do it at work.
I spend a good deal of time when not at work, AWAY from my computers and cell phone.
A balanced lifestyle, people. Sheesh!!!
TTYL
Brian C.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
There are both pros and cons to the "constantly connected".
:(
Pros:
* I don't have to be in the office to actually "work". I am hardly there anyway as my work is supporting POS in a retail environment.
* I travel around a lot and am constantly in touch with others.
* I can schedule doctors, dentists, mortage, and other personal appointments whenever I feel like it.
* I can see a hit movie in the middle of an afternoon if I want. I saw Spider-Man that way and it was worth the afternoon.
* I hardly ever take vacation because I can take a Friday and drive to my Mom's , or Banff or wherever and take a long weekend as long as I can stay in touch with my Blackberry. As long as there is GSM service, I can be there (unless I really do take vacation).
* I determine what the priorities are and what my schedule is to a large degree. Sipping a margarita in the pool at a friend's house in the middle of Summer. *sigh* That was a good Summer.
* I can watch The View in the morning. OK, that's probably a con as there is nothing else on...
Cons:
* I must be on available for calls pretty much 24/7.
* I sometimes have to break important plans or appointments to solve problems or go to the trouble including having to break those fun three day weekends.
* I am expected to have instant answers to perplexing problems hundreds or thousands of miles away and solve those problems over the phone.
* I am many times engaged with work for 12, 14 or 18 hours at a time solving large scale problems or installing new locations.
* Putting down the margarita, getting out of the pool and driving six hours to a location to figure out what the alarm at a location is refusing to release a data line and having to fix the fuckup and completely rewire it and get back home at four in the morning.
* One of only two people in the company covering the entire country with the answer to a problem. The responsibility gets to you sometimes.
* When your friends tell you that you have no life other than work.
* Standing at my best friends wedding as the best man at the front of the church during the service and my Blackberry rings and I insisted that I had to answer it. That's when everyone figured I had a problem.
* Actually looking forward to the fucking View in the morning. God damn you Starr Jones! I hate that bitch...and that annoying skinny blonde.
It coughed up a story from 1995.
I'm not sure I agree with this. Being on call is real work because it limits your freedom to do the things you'd normally do outside work to relax.
Many of the people using this technology are doing so because they've been given no choice or have been led to believe that they're somehow not important unless they're constantly available at someone else's whim.
The ones who are likely to welcome this are people who already work freelance in jobs such as writing and journalism, like the author of the article maybe? They already have to do time management and have a large amount of control over their working hours. Nobody is likely to ring them at 3AM to complain about a typo in their last article for example.
When 'on call' means supporting complicated systems that run 24/7 it's different. You have no control over the timing and you can't switch your phone off if you need to deal with something important outside work. People in other timezones will call you at convenient times for them, regardless of your situation.
I'm not saying being on call is all bad and some companies manage it very well but its somewhat naive to assume that giving people more connectivity will give them more control over their work rather than less.
Ame
There's a major differnce between being available online and having a social life. Social interaction has a lot more involved than simply communicating in words. Here's my take on this: http://junkland.n3rds.net/archives/28-Communicatio n-In-A-Connected-World.html
We may be many times more productive than past generations, but the bar has been raised so that anyone not as productive is out of a job. Take the water frame at the beginning of the industrial revolution. It enabled a person to produce more textiles in a factory, and many cottage weavers went out of business.
I think "Always On" can be positive, but in retrospect to the position on call. For support, data entry and sales I think that is a great idea. For development...not so good. For example:
Sales Person A wants to work for a couple hours so they log into the corporate servers at home and answer a few emails. The duration of their login, and what "work" is done is documented to prevent abuse etc, and they are credited with the work (hours, commission etc.). Say they want to go to an early movie...they can check out at anytime, and when one person checks out a text message is sent to all offline employees notifying them of a slot available for work. Only X amount of slots are allotted at any given time.
Now of course I just thought of that off the top of my head, but I think there is legitimate promise to a system like that.
Maybe an open source project would be a great place to test a system like that?
I think one thing that this story is missing is the way that connectivity can really improve your social life. As a young guy still working a fairly lame non-cubicle job, connectivity makes my social life much easier. With a cellphone that not only makes basic calls with plenty of minutes, but also text messaging and mobile AIM, I can contact virtually all of my friends at any time and schedule any kind of get-together I want.
It used to be that if you wanted to get all of your friends together, you'd have to call all of them, and if they didn't answer their phone, you either leave a message on their machine at home or just have to call them back. Now, I just type in the message "Sushi tonight?" and send it to the eight people that have cellphones with text messaging, and then load up mobile AIM for the one or two that don't. In five minutes, I'd easily convinced all of my friends to go to the same restaurant as soon as they got out of work.
I also don't come home to any tedious questions or demands. I already know from text messages during the day that someone was too busy to feed the dogs, so I just walk in and do it. I already know that my sister had a bad day at work and I can read every detail of it while I'm eating lunch at work, rather than listening to a furious rant as soon as I've switched from "work mood" to "relaxed mood" when I walk in the door at home.
Connectivity makes life a lot easier in this regard. If I could do my work like this, it would even better.
and that's one of the dangers of "constant connectivity" is that it's amazingly hard to turn off. The ceremony hadn't started yet, but I felt compelled to answer the phone. Problem is if I don't answer the phone, the person at the other end panics and does something stupid in an attempt to fix the problem and ends up making things much, much worse. It's just easier to take the call and solve the problem. Needless to say, it was taken away from me. :)
Then work called and interrupted my train of thought.
I lost my "cell"/mobile phone the other week....and I am not missing it.
My boss cant contact me at strange hours asking stuipd questions, He just needs to wait until I am back on SITE.
My phone bill is about a few hundred dollars cheaper as I am not calling people for the sake of calling them.
I am alot less stressed as I dont worry about missing/answering a call.
Constant Connectivity is just hell. this just assume boss's will not abuse the fact they can be in constant comminucation with their employess. And people will be under too much pressure to chose to have down time.
"I dont care you are in the middle of dinner with your familly, get to work and fix it...if you are not working in five minutes YOUR FIRED!!!"
It was the Spiderman Movie comment... "With great power comes great responsibility." that got me. Only geeks would be bitching about "always on". Free from the cruel bindings of geography, time, culture, religion & race, connectivity gives you great power over how you interact with others... for better or worse. We geeks may understand the technology behind it, but socially we are about as prepared for this power as a caveman with a blender. Sure it can automate manual tasks... as soon as we figure that out & quit beating each other over the head with it.
Relax... You're soaking in it." -Madge
While it's true that there's that "off" switch that's always available, the nature of the beast is always tempting you to leave it on. I have a number of friends who get ecstatic when their phone dies or gets lost because of the rush of freedom they feel, but they would never purposefully leave it behind or turn it off.
... he can't. Everyone thinks they could just turn off the TV or computer and have more alone time ... but they don't.
The internet can be sort of like drugs. Every addict thinks he can quit whenever he wants to, but the truth is
Internet connection cost me $50/month, and my cellular service cost me $60/month. Bottom line, being always on is like having a ball-and-chain on 24/7 and I'm being forced to pay for it.
Like many older people, I have a pay-as-you-go cellphone for emergencies and genuine need. I am able to make an appointment and keep it, without 7/8 intermediate cellphone conversations. And, as the original post said, I'm not interested in being 'available' at all times or babbling every inconsequential thought as I 'think' it. I enjoy staring out of the bus window and it's cheaper too. Some people get quite angry when I won't give them my cell number and I tell them that I don't use it. I've also noticed that the internet is much more central to my life since broadband, I going to have to chase it back down to a reasonable level too.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Recently saw these folks at DEMO in Phoenix http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2006/62991.h tml
Has anyone seen any other real-time systems or services to help me manage the other forms of real-time communications like IM, SMS, chat, video?
I can't even imagine how junior soccer players got together before the Internet!
"will allow us to break free from the office and actually socialise more"
You know, like the Romans!...
If there's anything electronic in my room made after 2000, it doesn't have an off switch, merely a power cable and a "soft" power button.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
:-))
Well they did, at least I did when I was a child. Of course there wasn't that much termin changing as it is these days.
O. Wyss
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
Unless you are self-employed, a tech-addict, or someone else who's constant connectivity is self-mandated. If it is mandated by by your employer, then the off switch is really a "reprimand me" button. Don't believe me? Whatever 'it' is, leave 'it' off and see what happens.
As for whether connectivity hinders or enhances your productivity, it really depends your job and the tasks/responsibilities thereof. I was constantly connected at my last job. It helped somethings... like being able to respond to emergencies (both real ones and management-defined ones) and being able to reach co-workers to ask questions or offer/recieve assistance. But it hurt a lot of other areas, like being able to finish a task or talk to a customer without interruption. Luckily my boss allowed us to use the 'off' switch. Yours may not. I found that in order to get any actual work done, I had to turn the instant-link radio off, shut down email, and forward the phone to voicemail... effectively cutting off my precious connectivity. But I could only do this rarely because 'people needed to reach me'. In the end, it was basically a wash. An incredibly annoying wash. Even when its a definite benefit, it's still annoying.
In my personal life, being constantly connected is more of a blessing... but its a one-way connection. When either of the phones ring, I let voicemail catch it unless it is my wife or I am expecting a call. My 'goal' is get people out of the notion that they can pick up a phone and interrupt me whenever they feel like it. My phones are for my convienience... not anyone else's. Most people have gotten the hint that if they need to reach me then the best way to do it is to send me an email or leave me a message. If they need to reach me NOW, RIGHT NOW DAMMIT, then most of them are out of luck. I don't do 'now, right now dammit'. Those closest to me can email my blackberry for a rapid response... once I've decided whether one is necessary. I think this is the way its supposed to work, even at work. Unfortunately we lack the power to do it anywhere other than our private lives. And by 'it' I mean the philosophy that the end user... the reciever of the message/phone call... should be in the position to determine whether it interrupts them or not. The default mode of instant-connectivity takes that decision out of our hands and puts it in the hands of technology, but... at least personally... we can take that power back. Unless you are self-employed, a tech-addict, or someone else who's constant connectivity is self-mandated. If it is mandated by your employer, then the off switch is really a "reprimand me" button. Don't believe me? Whatever 'it' is, leave 'it' off and see what happens.
As for whether connectivity hinders or enhances your productivity, it really depends your job and the tasks/responsibilities thereof. I was constantly connected at my last job. It helped some things... like being able to respond to emergencies (both real ones and management-defined ones) and being able to reach co-workers to ask questions or offer/receive assistance. But it hurt a lot of other areas, like being able to finish a task or talk to a customer without interruption. I found that in order to get any actual work done, I had to turn the instant-link radio off, shut down email, and forward the phone to voicemail... effectively cutting off my precious connectivity. But I could only do this rarely because 'people needed to reach me'. In the end, it was basically a wash. An incredibly annoying wash. Even when its a definite benefit, it's still annoying.
In my personal life, being constantly connected is more of a blessing... but its a one-way connection. When either of the phones ring, I let voicemail catch it unless it is my wife or I am expecting a call. My 'goal' is get people out of the notion that they can pick up a phone and interrupt me whenever they feel like it. My phones are for my convenience... not anyone else's. Most people have gotten th
Dark Icon
And it will be fine until we so heavily rely upon it all that it will actually become illegal to switch it off...
employers want you there 8:30 to 5:00pm and then they're making people on-call and pagable the rest of the day. They want us to be like 3rd world asian countries where people work 12+ hours a day every day of the week with maybe chinese new year for holidays.
... has one of my managers gone, then? His out-of-office autoreply claims he will have "no access to email".
Yet I get paged while I'm on holidays. Hmm.
"all newfangled technology comes with an 'off' switch" Can we all agree to stop using the hokey term "newfangled"?. The writers in my local newspaper use it all the time whenever they are talking about some new technology. I think they are trying to convey some naive, just came down from the farm type of mentality. But on Slashdot do writers really need to be so "aw-shucks ain't it amazing" about technology? Besides, is there such a thing as old-fangled technology?
I am in constant "always on" mode, and it does save time, but the fact that I am constantly interrupting my down time for short bursts, makes me feel harried and as if I never have long enough blocks of time to enter intense states of concentration.
I paint to relax. Painting, just like coding, allows you to enter intense states of concentration where you become incredibly productive. The Zone. Always on is a guarranteed way to break that focus and actually lower your output.
It strikes me that - over time - the idiot bosses who misuse the 24/7 aspects of their connectivity to their workforce will disappear through natural selection. The very nature of the new connectivity that we have makes the options that one has more clear and we can more easily jump from one boss (more draconian) to another (more, well, baconian). The new connectivity creates a more fluid market for labor and those that wish to shed themselves of their current shackles can find the key more easily.
RadioSteve
I use Vonage as my home line, and I have yet to get any telemarketer calls to that or to my cellphone. I suppose it can be seen as a side-benefit.
I've had zero problems with the Vonage service. (Then again, I pay for extra upload bandwidth from my provider, Comcast, because I'm a heavy Internet user.)
...when your power goes out, you can still get on with your life.
In the big black-out in the northeastern U.S. in 2003, people who absolutely relied on Internet access/email/etc. were suddenly paralyzed. The withdrawal symptoms were sad to watch. If you really want to interrupt the Internet, forget DoS attacks: just cut the power.
Anyway, I make my living online, but I'm offline more than not. I don't want to be efficiently working ALL DAY LONG; I want to work when I have to, and spend the rest of the time with my spouse and kids, doing non-electronic things. Cook. Draw. Read. Hike. Camp. Wrestle. Play chess or poker with real material objects. Take a nap.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
The 24/7 cell phone on call type crap is total garbage, unless you are getting paid 3 times the normal amount (8 hour day is normal eh?). Move to another state if you can't find a job that doesn't require being on call all day and night. They are abusing you, ya fool! Businesses will take advantage of you. Take lessons from the sales people... they are usually the laziest fucks in the whole place... and they aren't expected to work super "hard" all the time in most firms. As long as they meet their numbers. So get more support people hired so you can "meet your numbers" without working half your life away.
And that's one of the reasons I don't have cell. ;-)
The way it is now, even when the "normal" phone rings while I'm busy and don't expect some call I might not take it. If it was important, they will call again.
what with slashdot, kiroshin, linuxhomepage.com, my own rss setup over at google.com/ig. i dont have the time to do work anymore, its all reading aobut new technology. sigh.. i wish i could make the leap and become the phb!
_ In Egypt Networks: Network Solutions with a Twist
Dear Bryan,
You're fired.
Sincerely,
Your Boss
The subject says it all. And I don't do chat, problem solved.
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
Shouldn't that read:"...will allow us to break free at the office and actually socialise more."? /. constitute socialising for the majority of us here?
Doesn't posting to
I teach gifted middle school kids. After some interesting phone calls at home last year (from parents) my boss suggested I only use e-mail and refuse to give out my phone number. Life has been much better since then. Smart bosses understand that everyone needs some downtime and control over their schedule. Of course, smart bosses are in short supply -- I'm lucky on that count. The best ways to be connected are mobile (so I can choose the place) and asynchronous (so I can choose the time).
I -still- get messages saying "Pick up the phone, man!" It's voice mail, not an answering machine
You can use this to your advantage. When that person encounters you later they'll tell you that they left a message and you didn't call them back, and you can reply "Oh, sorry, that must have been the day the tape on my answering machine ran out."
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
This would all be fine except that you still end up working like a dog from 9-6 in addition to being on call at weird hours of the day. It's not like suddenly you're liberated from the workhouse.
This writer ought to be ashamed of himself. You can just use your own two eyes and look around and see people working harder than ever for less real money, taking on extra work here and there. You can see many geeks doing amazing things with technology, but there are many more people who just get into trouble with it.
I have a client who pulls out her cell phone every time she has a brain fart and calls me up to tell me about it. How do you measure that productivity?
Odd, it seems that soccer predates email.
I've noticed that this artificial necessity is a constant rationalization of technology. "I can't live with out it!", where people have for about a million years, and were perfectly happy, perhaps even happier than we are today.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
On the other hand, who knows whether we were happier with out all the the tech. I suspect that it comes down to comparing apples and oranges. In an age when a paper cut could kill you, and the feudal lord's word was law, people had very different stressors and concerns than they do now. More tightly integrated and insular communities made a great support network, but also made social ostracism more serious, if not downright deadly. I personally prefer worrying about checking my messages over worrying about the plague, and I enjoy being able to disagree with my neighbor about religion without being attacked by a mob, but I imagine if I had grown up in those times, my values might be altogether different.
I held out as long as humanly possible before geeting a cell-phone, as I do not like the particular ways that telecommunications technologies affect the ways people interact and I find them just viscerally annoying (especially cute ringtones). But I gave in. It remains practical to resist a paradigm shift for only so long. ;)
All the techniques ever used to make men moral have been themselves thoroughly immoral... (Nietzsche)
of continuous connectivity, not only do others get used to the idea, so do you. I don't do that anymore and I am quite into the habit of turning it off or engaging the silent profile.
Until you fall into the sphere of continuously connected you might now realize just how addicted people get to the convenience. All of my colleagues have Blackberrys and get annoying if you don't answer their bloody emails immediately. It's crazy.
I think where this is all going is a sort of piece-work approach to work in which people will be 'on call' but they will only be paid for the time that they are devoting their undivided attention to their employer's business, as measured by biometrics. Modern eye-tracking software can sense where one's focus is on a screen, and software plug ins can determine what files are being worked on. This way, employers will be able to weed out their most productive employees from the herd and pay them accordingly, while dismissing the slackers who merely punch their time clocks. This approach, which Frederick Taylor pioneered in the 1870s, is at the foundation of the prosperity seen by the corporation in the 20th century. Ultimately, machines will replace people, and that will be even more profitable!
You have now joined the rest of the world.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
...is that you start to dread going onto your laptop/desktop just to browse the web because someone wants to chat in IM. Do you just ignore them? Do you mark yourself as "offline" (after it just finished announching you were back online)? For me, I dread the "uh oh!" sound file sometimes when I'm just wanting to check something on IMDB, or see if any new email arrived, and a friend wants to start an IM conversation...
Darryl L. Pierce "What do you care what people think, Mr. Feynman?"
I think of more than half of the world as enslaved, who wants to join that?