Corporate Life
If you're Canadian, then you likely know who David Suzuki is. For those that don't, he's an iconic figure in science and nature, whose foundation strives to protect the balance of nature and our quality of life. Many years ago, I saw/heard him talk about how the advent of technology has decreased our relative quality of life. Huh? Decrease it?
I know I'm going to butcher this explanation, but here goes. David's statement revolves around the theory that any transaction carries an associated element of stress or burden with it. A transaction could be a telephone call, an e-mail, a sales call - anything that we do in the course of our day that requires interaction with others. The more of these events that you have, the higher your stress level, and of course, the lower the quality of life.
I know I'm going to butcher this explanation, but here goes. David's statement revolves around the theory that any transaction carries an associated element of stress or burden with it. A transaction could be a telephone call, an e-mail, a sales call - anything that we do in the course of our day that requires interaction with others. The more of these events that you have, the higher your stress level, and of course, the lower the quality of life.
To illustrate, hearken back to the days of the Pony Express, when a transaction would take days, maybe even weeks to take place. How about the telegraph, you say? Well, that required a trip to the post office, fill out the form, and then get the telegraph clerk to tap in the morse code. It was also expensive - about $1 for a ten word message! Suffice it to say, you couldn't squeeze too many transactions into the day. So what did you do instead? You went back to the barn and fed the horses, planted crops, or perhaps went off to the saloon for a whiskey. Certainly not a very stressful day.Fast forward about a century, and we're entrenched in the mechanized culture. It takes only a few days to receive a letter, but the telephone is now ubiquitous, and the teletype has replaced the cumbersome telegraph. Instead of a mere handful of interactions in the day, now you're handling dozens. Remember that each of these interactions take some of your attention and energy - you still only have 24 hours in a day, after all. So something has to give - either you do less transactions, or your associated personal burden goes up.
Enter the invention of the transistor, and the following transformation to a computerized culture. With worldwide IP networks and mobile services available almost anywhere, using computers and modern communications equipment, we can literally handle hundreds of interactions in a day! Now you have the associated stress and burden of not only these transactions that you handle on a daily basis, but the transferred anxiety of dealing with others expecting immediate turnaround on their interaction with you. Additionally, in the past, you would leave your work and burden at the office when you left for the day. With wireless phones, blackberry devices, and laptops, the work day no longer ends when you get home.
So has our quality of life improved with the advent of all this technology, or has the associated stress, anxiety and burden around the increased ability to transact actually decreased it? I'll leave the debate open. But what is the point I'm trying to make? We all contribute to the communications and interaction that we send to each other... I know that cc-ing others might seem like a good idea to you, but take a second to think if that person really needs to know, or will it become SPAM? Likewise when "replying all" to a message; does everyone really need to read what you have to say? The theme behind this blog is reducing chaos - this is just one little step that we can all take to decrease the clutter, and maybe even increase the quality of our lives, even if just a little bit.
Originally Posted on: Nov 05, 2007
