Slave to the Machine

Digital connections are beginning to take over my life. The recent growth in social networks and the relative ease of connecting with people through digital means has dramatically increased my time behind a computer. So much so that I am now a slave to the machine.

It is madness.

On a slow day, I am spending at least two hours going through corporate email, personal email, blackberry messages, photoblogs, audio forums, blogs and other assorted social networking sites. And, if I happen to travel, the backlog to get caught up has become seemingly insurmountable. For the first time in a couple of decades, I find that I am no longer able to respond promptly to people.

Funny thing, though, is that most people still expect an instant response to their email. Being “late”? to respond ”“ meaning more than a couple of days ”“ is generally frowned upon.

I”™ve also noticed that some people can be exceptionally rude in their electronic communication. I see it all the time on the comments that get posted to this blog. I moderate all comments on this blog and I”™ve pretty much had it with people that post crude language and use an overly aggressive tone. I used to edit out the bad language and provide a response. Now, I simply delete those comments.

Can it be that far away where the rest of my digital communication begins to suffer a similar fate? Deleted because there is no time to respond?

I can hardly remember what life was like before I had all of these digital connections. What did I do with all of that time back then?