I wish I were not that connected

Before:

We had a fixed phone line at home. We had a fixed phone line on our desk at the office. There was a letterbox in front of the house and a pigeon hole at some central location in the office.
And we were not reachable when sleeping, when in meeting, when commuting, …

Now:

We have a fixed phone line at home. We have a fixed phone line on our desk at the office. We have a mobile phone in our pocket or connected to the hands-free system in the car. The computers and tablet are running Skype or another communication software that shows every contact if we are “available”, “busy” or “not to be disturbed”. There are still letterboxes and pigeon holes but also e-mails, instant messaging, …
The fixed lines fall back on the mobile if there is no answer after 5 tones. We are reachable when sleeping, when in meeting, when commuting, … People call you when you don’t answer their e-mail after 5-10 minutes.

Next week:

I will be abroad, following some conference. What if I only carry a wifi-enabled music player running just Skype? I will be reachable between talks not during talks, at the conference center but not when commuting, at the hotel but not when reading or sleeping. Will it really make a difference? I wish I were not that connected.

P.S. of course this is a first world problem:

🙂

2 thoughts on “I wish I were not that connected”

  2. We really do have to ask ourselves just what it is that we’re connecting to.
    I lived in the third world all my life, until we came to Portugal four years ago. I still have a basic cellphone. I still refuse to send text messages though. I work freelance, so I spend all day at the computer. If I do go out and happen to miss an e-mail which is “urgent”, I consider it less urgent than whatever I was doing that took me away from the computer. Amazingly, there has only been one instance so far this year where whatever I missed was actually urgent in my view. My life is full to overflowing. What more could I possibly want?
    I am sure you will be fine with just Skype on your wi-fi-enabled music player. That way you will have some contact with those with whom you really need to stay in touch. In any case, you will be *busy* focussing on the conference!
    Congrats on being freshly pressed!
    Enjoy the time out you have next week. 🙂

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