Unplugging… why is it so hard?
There’s a brand new thread over at Web Worker Daily about the length of a web worker’s work week. I find the first entry by FreshBooks president and CEO Mike McDerment disheartening as it adds up to nearly 70 hours per week. Forget high cholesterol, workaholism is the real epidemic plaguing this great land of ours.
I have a great job, work hard, and I enjoy my work, but lately I find it increasingly difficult to STOP working, to take a break and spend time with my family without lurking thoughts of the office creeping in. Last night, I even found myself mulling over work in the shower. Perhaps the folks I work for will be pleased to hear this, but it’s an emblem of a broader phenomenon.
Until relatively recently (say, 15 to 20 years), when you left work you LEFT work. Unless you took paperwork home with you or had a pager or were one of those rare folks with a secretary who knew every conceivable number where you could be reached, you were done. Geography made certainly communicative and activity-related decisions for you. That has all changed now.
Yes, it’s terrific that my Treo frees me up a bit from being in my office, but should I really be checking email during my daughter’s ballet lesson? Probably not, but I have to make a CONSCIOUS choice not to do so.
The part of new media that I don’t think enough people are fretting about is this upsurge in choices that pervasive media and ubiquitous computing make necessary. Barry Schwartz applies the economics theory of opportunity cost to this in his book “The Paradox of Choice,” and James Glieck talked about it in “Faster,” but I’d like to see a broader discussion of how people take these choices and make them in a perpetual way.
What do I mean by this? How do people arrange their lives so that, somehow, the decision to unplug is automatic, unconscious… so that they don’t have to evaluate, “should I turn off my phone/email/IM or shouldn’t I?” each and every time.
For perspective, check out this piece from 2001 by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.
3 Responses to “Unplugging… why is it so hard?”
1 Florian 28 January 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Hi,
I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog
Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day
2 Dave Wilkie 24 July 2007 @ 10:18 am
Brad:
It’s next to impossible to get away from it, though I have avoided the pocket PC, Blackberry, iPhone revolution up to now.
Here’s an idea of mine I’d like to see pick up some traction. Media Free Zones.
3 Joseph Carrabis 27 July 2007 @ 4:58 am
Well, Brad…
for lots of reasons my work life is coming under control. I think this is an extension of the voluntary simplification thread I wrote about a while back in Brad Berens on “How Big Can the Web Get?” and So I declared Bankruptcy…or was it Voluntary Simplification applied to the ‘Net?
I now stop work at 5pm (or close to) and pick up my guitar for an hour. My evenings are spent reading for pleasure, watching a movie, playing cards (not on a computer). My weekends are strictly for family and nothing interferes. I take time during the day to exercise (about an hour) and when I have lunch I get out of the office to do so.
The idea about a Media Free Zone is worthy, and I’ll check that blog for details and also post comments on BizMediaScience.
Titillating reading as always, Brad. - Joseph