Monday, January 30, 2006

e-mail addiction

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG The New York Times : January 29, 2006
For some of us, the computer has become less and less a place to work and more and more a place to await messages from the ether, like hopeful spiritualists. I thought I was a fairly temperate user of computers. But in the past year or so I have become addicted to e-mail. I confess it. You probably know the signs.
  • Do you tell your e-mail program to check for messages automatically every two minutes — and then disbelieve it when it comes up empty?
  • Have you learned to hesitate before answering a new message so it doesn't look as though you were hunched over the keyboard, waiting?
  • Do you secretly think of lunch as a time for your inbox to fill up?

But the clearest sign of e-mail addiction is simply to ask yourself, what is the longest you've gone without checking your e-mail in the past two months? Anything longer than a broken night's sleep is good.

No comments:

Post a Comment