Having been part of corporate America (a major bank and a major oil company) I am quite aware of the detrimental affects and effects of being required to carry a pager, or a cell phone, or a laptop computer.

Now days one is chained to every desk that they sit behind. Some rooms only have a throne to sit upon, but you must at least have your cell phone when sitting upon a throne. Big brother has grown up to be the father of all mankind, and tries to be father of all humankind.

Families on the other hand have a need to stay in touch with each because of the many unsolicited verbal commentary’s imposed upon them by emasaries of their father. the relief often timess is to speak to someone in such a manner as to cause the emmasary of their father to depart, talk Christian.

Although I admit this can be frustrating to emmasary’s of their father who control information highways and we are asked to be tolerant of, but it does provide relief to those of a different father, to whom is given no tolerance. What is good for the tolerant is not given to the tolerant, for the dictionary says tolerance is too much of a burden.

I purchased a cell phone for my girlfriend and one for myself so I might better be of service to my help. Opps, I feel my help coming on now, gotta go !!!

- Chaplain Winston

I do not like being on an electronic leash, especially since now my family has the expectation that I’m always reachable, even though they are not. Annoying.

That is one of the reasons, though, why I never use a cell in the car (besides the obvious distraction factor)–I just know that every guy driving by is thinking “woman driver on a cell phone, yeesh.” Like I’m swapping recipes or makeup tips. And I resent feeling responsible for inviting people to think that. The truth is that most people I know, of both sexes, think they are not only great drivers, but that they are so good that a phone call presents no distraction for them–and besides, all *their* phones calls are *important.*

Except for my mother, who always calls at work when I can’t answer, and leaves a succession of messages, each more pissed-off sounding than the last.

But I get the feeling she’d be doing this if she were calling a landline answering machine, too. She’s that type of person.

I agree also with the person who likes email. I keep odd hours, and I can send an email to a friend at 3 am when I’m on the computer and it won’t wake them up. If I call them, they probably won’t be my friend anymore.

I carry a prepaid call-card as backup for when I’m also too absentminded to carry pocket change. The world will have to be satisfied with that. :/

That’s the sexism that I feel bubbling up when I see cell phones in use.

Actually the thing that aggravates me the most is watching a parent of either sex walking along with a stroller and/or children in tow, completely ignoring them while yapping on a cell phone. It happens a lot in our neighborhood and I feel like: so you packed up the kids and took them outside just so you could ignore them some more?

[I have to admit that I hestitated about letting this comment through. Although I think that, in a society that on the whole harms women with sexism significantly more than men, sexist jokes against women are more objectionable, the fact remains that sexist jokes against men are still sexist jokes, and I don't really approve of them either, or want "Alas" to be a place for such jokes. With all due respect, please don't post jokes like this on "Alas" again in future. Thanks! --Amp]

Seeing that I got a couple of replies about by message in regards to email I will just try to clarify. What I was trying to say that using email inappropriately quite often hurts productivity not that email cannot be used as a tool for enhancing productivity. Email is good at sending out pure raw information, such as documents, things in regard to the status of various items, appointments, scheduling, and informational messages sent to a group(s) of people; however, as stated before email is not a very good conversational tool for a couple of reasons.

1. It takes for most people about 10 times along to write up a proper email (e.g. one that uses proper grammar and puts the information in an organized manner) as it does compared to reading an email. In conversation, most people generally can speak much faster than they can type and the amount of time spent listening is usually more or less even. In addition, the overwhelming vast majority of people are superior communicators orally versus how they write.

2. More importantly misunderstandings that arise during communication can be easily resolved quickly and efficiently, and questions prompted during a conversation can be quickly answered. An example, of how inefficient email is in clarify misunderstandings that arise during a “conversation” can easily being seeing how long it takes for misunderstanding in this blog alone to be resolved

Anyways here a few articles on productivity loss do to email and ways that email can be managed better e.g. be used to enhance productivity.

E-mails ‘hurt IQ more than pot’ from http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/22/text.iq/ a few excerpts from the article

The survey of 1,100 Britons showed:

Almost two out three people check their electronic messages out of office hours and when on holiday

Half of all workers respond to an e-mail within 60 minutes of receiving one

One in five will break off from a business or social engagement to respond to a message.

Nine out of 10 people thought colleagues who answered messages during face-to-face meetings were rude, while three out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.

In 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King’s College London University, monitored the IQ of workers throughout the day. He found the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points — the equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.

When the Halo Becomes a Noose: The Dark Side of Email from http://content.monster.ca/8899_en-CA_p3.asp an excerpt from the article:
For example, people who receive 50 emails a day can spend up to four hours sorting and replying. (Management Issues) It’s not far-fetched.
According to Mary Czerwinski, a computer scientist at Microsoft, the delay between handling the email interruption and getting back to the previous task is where the bulk of time and productivity is lost. On average, it takes 25 minutes to deal with the email interruption and then getting back to what you were doing when the interruption occurred. All this ““ because of one email!

E-mail free Friday to encourage verbal communication from http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=4312 two excerpts from the article:
Companies in the UK are now introducing ‘e-mail free Fridays’ to try and reduce the amount of unnecessary material being sent out, and to foster greater interaction between employees. E-mail has swiftly become the staple means of communication in the workplace, but this has had a downside: overloading of servers, overloading of people with information, reduced face-to-face interactions between employees, and reduced productivity.

A recent survey in the UK revealed that 80 per cent of workers use e-mail politically to cover their backs, while a third admitted to using e-mail to avoid resolving a difficult situation face-to-face or over the phone. It is also common knowledge that up to half of all e-mails sent by workers are jokes, quizzes, forwards from friends, etc, which have become known to some in the communications world as ‘productivity viruses’ for obvious reasons. The e-mail free Friday is an attempt to address these problems, all of which are steadily increasing, by banning e-mail communication on that day, forcing employees to take a different approach and to use their time more appropriately.

TIPs on Efficient Email Use from http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/03/efficient-email A few excerpts:

Checking email too often is a significant productivity drain. Email by its very nature isn’t usually urgent unless it’s your entire job, such as answering customer support emails. Here are some tips to prevent email from taking too big a chunk out of your day.

Other Productivity Recommendations from http://w-uh.com/articles/030308-tyranny_of_email.html and http://www.ir35calc.co.uk/boost_productivity_for_free.aspx a few excerpts

The six rules for avoiding email tyranny:

1. Turn your email client off. Pick the moment at which you’ll be interrupted.
2. Never criticize anyone in email, and avoid technical debates. Use face-to-face meetings or ‘phone calls instead.
3. Be judicious in who you send email to, and who you copy on emails.
4. Observing some formality is important.
5. Don’t hesitate to review and revise important emails.
6. Remember that email is a public and permanent record.

A simple way to increase productivity
Turn off your phone and email for two three hour sessions each day and watch the increased results in productivity.

Asynchronous communication is good for me because it means I have complete control over when I communicate and I don’t get interrupted at a bad moment. It’s why I don’t own a mobile (cell) phone. I can’t imagine something that could be more consistently stressful than a mobile phone.

I’m glad that someone else notices “The need to have to be constantly available is incredibly stressful after a while.”. I hadn’t found anyone else who agrees with me. Everyone else just thinks I’m weird for not having a mobile and can’t imagine why I would find it inconvenient; they delight in pointing out the odd occasion when it would be helpful and put pressure on me to get one. UGH! Wake up folks, I am not on this planet just to be on the other end of a phone just when you want me to be.

Amen to that! I much prefer email unless the communication involved requires that both (or all) parties know that everyone is on the same page about something at precisely the same moment - no wondering “did so and so get my message saying I couldn’t make it / what time to be there / it’s been cancelled?” or something like that. I find email to be so much less intrusive - I don’t have to check it until I’m ready to do so, if I check it I don’t have to read it right away, if I read it I don’t have to respond right away unless it’s absolutely necessary… and it doesn’t involve some damn gizmo ring-ring-ringing until somebody or some other gizmo picks up. I don’t even have a cell phone any more, but I feel that way even about my home land line. Part of it might be that my job involves answering the phone on my desk every single time it rings, no exceptions, but I think it’s more about me just not wanting to be bothered when I’m busy or not in the mood to to chat with anyone who decides to ring me up for something that most likely isn’t more of a priority for me than what I’m already doing (and if it is, I’ll probably know it as soon as they start talking to my machine). I have a phone for my convenience, not everybody else’s. (I’m also one of those people that someone complained about above, lol - the ones who reply to phone calls via email instead of another phone call. I do this especially if the phone call was unsolicited, or if I know from Caller ID that it’s someone who can’t be trusted to stay on point during the conversation or respect whatever time constraints I might be under.)

I’ve had some really irritating experiences with people who think I *should* be available whenever they want me for something, and act like it’s a personal insult when I’m not. F’rinstance, someone calling, getting my machine, hanging up, waiting 20 minutes, calling again, getting my machine, hanging up, waiting 20 minutes, calling again… and so on, rather than just leaving a message the first time so I could return later when I was actually, you know, physically present and/or not otherwise occupied. Eventually, if I didn’t pick up for a long enough time, there might be a somewhat peevish message, and then perhaps a half hour later yet another message sounding even more put out that I *still* wasn’t available and hadn’t responded to the first one, because apparently nobody has a life other than the person doing the dialing.

And don’t even get me started on what it was like when I carried a cell phone AND a pager. Try pulling off the highway to return a call to someone who just dialed up your “emergency only” pager only to have them say, “I called you three times at home and there was no answer. I just wondered what you were doing.”

I haven’t carried either the cell phone or pager for years, and I have yet to be in a situation where either one of them would have made a difference in terms of my own safety or convenience. I can see where I might get a cell phone again in the future, but if I do, I probably won’t give out the number (Caller ID might foil that plan in short order, but I can dream). As far as I’m concerned it will be outgoing only. Of course, my old one was supposed to be that way too, in the sense that I never turned it on except for outgoing calls, and my friends and family all knew that, but having the pager took care of that… if someone paged me, they expected to hear back immediately because they knew I had a cell phone. Fortunately the situation that made the pager necessary has long since passed.

I’ve noticed in talking with people elsewhere about this issue that dislike of telephones in general and cell phones in particular seems to be pretty common among introverts, who typically want and need more time “away from it all” than more extraverted folks. And it’s hard to get “away from it all” when “it all” can dial you up direct no matter where you went to get away. I’m wondering - how many here who feel the same consider themselves on the introvert side of the spectrum?

I can, however, understand the stalker feel of cell phones. My brother and his friend were at my house one afternoon to help me move and each of them received so many “just checking in calls” from their wife/girlfriend that they ended up turning off their phones. Which may explain why I’m inclined not to think that the technology is inherintly biased in relation to sex.

I think that some problems with abusing the technology extend from a lack of security, control and trust. The technology becomes a tool to assuage a person’s feelings insecurity or need to control others. My solution is to provide some of my own control over the technology by choosing when I respond and when I don’t. And when to shut the damn thing off and toss it in a drawer. :)

I also disagree that donating cell phones to abused women is ineffective. While I don’t think a phone can necessarily protect someone from assault, most women in abusive relationships are isolated by their abuser and providing that technology can be a means to give them back some control.

I think in situations like Anna in Cairo mentions above - again the problem is not the phone, but the apparently irrational fears her boyfriend seems to have.

I do have a mobile phone but often keep it on silent mode - one reason is because otherwise I forget to turn it off when I’m in classes or in the library or a meeting or whatever, also because I prefer it that way - I can see if someone’s left me a missed call or a message, but I don’t feel harrassed to respond immediately.

No they don’t. People create those expectations.

I use my cell phone for outgoing calls almost exclusively, unless I’m traveling. People know that’s not a good way to reach me.

the more I think about this the more I feel like these technologies are just one more way to exercise social control over women (children and employees too). .

You might find this article interesting:
How I stalked my girlfriend

I don’t think you can be accused of conspiracy theory unless you claim that cell phones were invented for the deliberate purpose of suveillance of women. And even if you do decide to make that argument, you can only be accused of conspiracy theory if you’re wrong.

Also, when I was in high school, my junior and senior years I had a cell, and it actually considerably decreased my parents’ surveillance. For example, they abolished my curfew, and just expected me to “check in” on the cell if I was going to be out later than midnight. They knew I was responsible, and didn’t worry about me so much in case of an emergency.

In sum, I agree with Jeff: it’s more the social customs than the technology that are harmful. Sure, parents who are extremely strict are going to take advantage of cell phones, but parents who wouldn’t set up extreme surveillance on their kids aren’t going to just because they can. Similarly, people who tend to worry about what’s going on at home when they’re at work, and vice versa, are going to be even more stressed out by cell phones, but people who have never had that problem will be able to just turn the phones off.

I also wasn’t thinking about the connect between the outsourcing and working at home.

Side note: Judging from some of the language it sounds like we have a real international group of folks on this thread, which makes me wonder if this is a general problem with post modern societies.

I don’t know if the stress of being constantly available affects all women more, but I think it does bother me (a woman) more in ways that set off my anti-housewife alarms. I’d really like to be able to send my husband off on an errand and know that he’ll make whatever judgement calls neccesary, without calling me to check every damn detail. Which is what he used to do, and it pretty much removed the benefits of asking him to take care of something for me. I got around this minor problem by giving him more specific lists if specificity is important, and making it really clear that whatever flavour of jam or brand of dishwashing liquid is fine by me! Of course, it also helped what I realized that it bothered me to feel like I was “in charge” of shopping, and therefore had to be consulted as an expert. I had the fairly typical newlywed fear of turning into Harriet Housewife.

I definitely relate to what a couple of other people have said regarding people freaking out and assuming something is wrong if they can’t get you on your cell, then calling every single number they can think of to “make sure you’re ok”. I had this problem for a while with my cell phone, someone would call me at work when I was in the middle of an experiment, so of course I didn’t pick up. They’d then keep calling my phone every couple of minutes, finally call the lab phone, and be all freaked out. Meanwhile I’m trying to run an experiment and ignore my phone ringing off the hook. I have made it clear to anyone who calls me regularly that if I don’t pick up it’s because I have my hands full, and I *will* call back, unless they keep calling and calling, then I won’t call them back because I will be annoyed. This has worked pretty well, especially because I word it in terms of my job, that I can’t always pick up because I’m elbow deep in lab work, wearing gloves and handling time sensitive protocols.

I’m also reminded of a highly melodramatic boyfriend who once called my house constantly for an hour and a half, letting it ring till the voicemail started, then hanging up. I was out having a driving lesson, and my grandmother was in, but she doesn’t answer my parents phone, so she had to sit and listen to it ring. The boyfriend insisted that he was mad with worry and convinced I’d fallen out of my loft bed and broken my neck, even though he was aware of my driving lesson schedule. I felt it was extremely obnoxious (and silly). A bit off topic I suppose, but anecdotal evidence that you don’t need a cell phone to be harrassed by clingy callers!