I'm an unregenerate technophile. My toys are mostly for fun, though. I've worked with a number of folks who let their gadgets run their lives. This post provides some links about a way out.
This BusinessWeek Commentary: Take A Vacation From Your BlackBerry pointed out something I've noticed working with many of my colleagues. Living with always-on, always-interrupting devices isn't the best way to live. Here's an analogy: there are two broad types of computer systems, real-time and transactional. Real-time systems are designed to handle incoming requests immediately, while transactional systems are designed for more efficient processing of jobs. Real-time systems are usually inefficient - because they're designed to be interrupted. They burn more computing resources to get a smaller amount of work done. Always being ready to take an immediate request means that the system can't efficiently process other work, because it never knows when the next interruption will come. The same thing happens when we open ourselves to always-on interruptions: we get less done. I suspect the work gets done in a less thoughtful way, too.
Here's a book to consider: In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore. My own rebellion against being always-on is to embrace the slow food movement. I love to cook and I love to enjoy food in settings with people I love and enjoy. John and I eat most meals at home. It's a rare week when he's not baking bread or where we're not hosting friends. I've used some of my kitchen gadgets a bit less often, too. My knife work's gotten better because I take time to chop by hand rather than letting a machine make a mess out of things I'm preparing.
We've been walking the countryside together, too. Almost every Sunday morning finds us on one of the local trails. I do take along my camera, but all other gadgets stay home.
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