I’ll be honest…having an email address stresses me out. Every day, my personal account is flooded with advertisements from different companies I’ve done business with over the last few years (eBay, Gap, buy.com, etc.). As college students, we also have to have a school email address! Since I am signed up on a listserv, I receive many unimportant messages as well as important ones. It seems every time I check my phone, I have a new email in my inbox. It’s just never ending!
After reading Danah Boyd’s blog on taking an email sabbatical, I thought to myself, “Could I ever manage this?” Among all of the emails that I receive, there are always at least five very important ones. If my inbox were to reject all of my emails, I would for sure miss out on something…whether it be a meeting or a test review. The idea of having a week free of the intrusion of emails is just so wonderful. I almost can’t remember life without this constant contact with the outside world.
This goes back to the concept of instant gratification. People expect you to receive their email and to respond to it very promptly (sometimes within hours). Oh, life without this stress. Wouldn’t it be nice? Unfortunately, we are too progressed to completely do away with email in our lives. We would surely miss an important message. What we need to do, however, is take a deep breath and relax:
1) 1) Respond to emails only during certain hours of the day.
2) 2) When you go on vacation, turn your email notifications off. They will still go to your inbox, but they won’t intrude on your personal time.
3) 3) When sending an email, give the person at least a day to respond. Don’t be quick to get annoyed with the person.
We are all guilty of constantly being plugged in. The question is, what are you going to do to not allow email to control your life?
On a humorous note, I received an email during the time it took me to write this blog post (really, they are always rolling in). Luckily, it was only my digital turnitin receipt. (Ha ha)
2 comments:
The most that I've gone without email and internet connection was the four days that I was gone to fish camp. If its not email then its facebook or something else. Our lives are so incorporated in the world of internet that we get frustrated when the instant gratification doesn't occur. It's hard to believe that this is where we have come to with today's technology.
I understand completely what you mean. I have had a hard time starting a habit to check my e-mail at certain times of the day. Everything would be easier if I had a smart phone. Sometimes I miss important information from e-mails just because I forget to check or am just too busy and am away from the computer.
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