receiver magazine      #22 | Seizing the moment

Sharon Kleinman is a Professor of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, USA, who focuses on the social implications of communication technologies and on issues concerning on-line and place-based communities. Currently, her work centres on sustainability, in every meaning of the word. She is the editor of Displacing Place: Mobile Communication in the Twenty-first Century, which was published in 2007 by Peter Lang. Right now, she is editing a reader on The Culture of Efficiency: Technology in Everyday Life, to be published by Peter Lang in summer 2009. This collection of essays was inspired by Kleinman's fascination with innovations and motivated by the desire to learn more about sustainable environmental, societal, and human health. In her receiver article, Sharon Kleinman reflects on some of the demands of living in cultures of efficiency and offers suggestions for enhancing satisfaction and well-being, drawn from lessons learned the hard way.

Website: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1288.xml? Person=14226&type=5

Illustration by Ben Voos ...........................................................................................................................................................................

Innovations of all sorts fascinate me, but most especially, pocket-sized technologies that are highly efficient and effective, like the ΄space pen΄ that can write upside down, designed for NASA astronauts in 1965. Mine is in my pocket or briefcase almost all the time, along with two USB thumb drives that store digital backup files of my favorite photographs and nearly everything I've written since 1993. My forthcoming edited collection, The Culture of Efficiency: Technology in Everyday Life, was inspired by this fascination with innovations. I want to put forward some of its core findings in this article and reflect on our use of innovative technology that provides us with anytime-anyplace connectivity, in cultures of efficiency – contexts in which the optimization of time and resources are emphasized.



Our cultural transformation

We are in the midst of a cultural transformation: the digitalization of just about everything. We enjoy ever-increasing technological capabilities for bending and transcending spatial and temporal constraints, as well as unprecedented consumer opportunities. We routinely transmit photographs, video, text, and audio instantly to individuals and groups all over the planet. We work, play, bank, learn, communicate, create, flirt, and shop on-line, and often while we're on the move, using powerful, portable devices. We shift time to watch television shows and movies on-demand, viewing them on matchbook-sized mobile phone screens and on super-sized home theater screens. We vicariously experience events happening in distant places, including outer space, in real time. The entire world is accessible at our fingertips, 24-7, 365 days a year. But most of the time we take all of this for granted – our technologies, our opportunities, our resources – because we are so busy doing something, or many things, all the time.

Tools for mediated communication were developed to satisfy needs for contact and exchange with others and to help people to achieve more, with less effort. Today's equipment and applications make it possible to build and access information in dimensions that were unthinkable only a generation ago. They enable us to convert dead time into productive time, to use time more efficiently, so we can rid ourselves of tiring routines and toilsome processes, expand our range of movement, and have more time for the people and activities that mean the most to us. Does your everyday experience tick all these boxes? If so, then you're lucky...

  
Left: How we envision the future, according to Daniel Gilbert
Right: John Maeda's laws of simplicity



As information and communication technologies, such as computers, mobile phones, and global positioning systems have become progressively more robust, user-friendly, and affordable during the last two decades, they have been integrated into nearly all aspects of everyday life for many people. But the early twentieth century dream that modern technology would lead to increased leisure time for people to enjoy, has morphed into a nerve-wracking, twenty-first century reality for some who are compelled to be electronically accessible to others virtually all the time, even when they are in bed, bathrooms, and restaurants; as well as for those who must take their work with them everywhere, even on vacation, if they take vacations at all. A quarter of all workers in the US, for example, do not take vacations. Many give up earned time off, year after year.



Extreme working

There are extreme workers everywhere who overwork voluntarily, because they love what they do. In other cases, though, where corporate-downsizing has left workplaces understaffed, there are fewer people to do the work that needs to be done. The remaining employees must work harder and longer hours, in order to maintain the same level of productivity and quality. Yet many people overwork and stay continuously connected and available to their employers, co-workers, and clients because of job insecurity. This phenomenon has been called ΄presenteeism΄; the opposite of absenteeism. Workers exhibiting presenteeism perform their jobs in ways that sometimes negatively impact their personal lives. Those who routinely deal with work-related interruptions during leisure time (researchers call this ΄spillover΄) experience higher stress levels that have been correlated with a wide variety of physical and mental health problems.

Perhaps those people who are always ΄on΄ and always available for work, as well as those who habitually overwork, are acting prudently and proactively in today's extremely challenging global economic climate. Unfortunately, many people have good reasons to feel insecure about their employment in belt-tightening times like these, in which there has been wave after wave of job layoffs throughout the world. Moreover, businesses automate processes and outsource an expanding range of work to countries where cheap(er) labor is readily available. So, in the scheme of things, individuals who are gainfully employed and have comfortable homes and enough food to eat, and who are healthy and have healthy loved ones, are very fortunate. But they still might be time-crunched.



Strategies for thriving in the culture of efficiency

When we are time-crunched, we multitask. Research indicates that using mobile phones while driving increases the likelihood of crashes by four times, and, surprisingly, it doesn't matter whether the devices used are hand-held or hands-free. Eighty percent of mobile phone users, surveyed by University of Michigan researchers, expressed their belief that it is a safety hazard to use a mobile phone while driving. But many who are aware of the risks do it anyway. Often, they multitask because they are trying to keep up with everything that they need to do. Which leads me to the first suggestion: selectively embrace technologies.

Selectively embracing technologies means being more mindful about how and when you use them. It means making forward-thinking and healthy choices; such as ending a mobile phone call before putting the car keys in the ignition to go for a ride, or pulling off the road to stop at a safe place, before reading a text message or checking email.

Selectively embracing technology could also mean introducing a type of technology sabbatical into the work routine. For example, committing to email-free mornings a few days a week, in order to focus attention and energy on one thing at a time; rather than toggling back and forth between applications and projects which may seem to be efficient, but is not. Neuroscience research has shown that when people go off-task, for instance, to read and respond to an email message, it takes significant time and effort to ramp back up to where they were on their original project. Which brings me to the next suggestion: opt for face-to-face encounters when feasible.

Many of us race so hard through our lives that our thoughts, actions, conversations, and even our meals, are often fragmented and abbreviated. Taking time to consider and reconsider is a luxury many of us don't have, or perceive that we don't have. In this era of ubiquitous anytime-anyplace connectivity, it appears that everybody else acts and reacts right away, so we feel that we need to do so as well. It reminds me of a spatial analogy: if everybody in a crowd stands up on their tippy toes, nobody can see any better. Instantaneous electronically-mediated communication doesn't give anybody the competitive edge if everybody is using it. And everybody seems to be using it all the time.

One ramification of the ease and convenience of anytime-anyplace connectivity is that people sometimes communicate messages on-the-fly, that have not been carefully thought through and that might be counterproductive or damaging. Most of us have received and sent missives like this, and post hoc, we don't feel good about them. So, consider taking a different approach and don't let face-to-face contact slide.

Even when it takes extra time and effort to arrange in-person meetings, your exchange of ideas will be more efficient and more effective because the non-verbal aspects of face-to-face communication facilitate enhanced understanding. Proxy encounters might seem efficient, but sometimes they aren't in the long-run, and we find out the hard way. Which brings me to the final suggestion: strive for balance.

Paracelsus, a sixteenth century Swiss doctor who is often referred to as the father of modern toxicology, wrote: "Alle Ding sind Gift, und nichts ohn Gift; allein die Dosis macht, daß ein Ding kein Gift ist." In English, this translates to, "All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous."

Many of us are so busy trying to keep up in a lightning-fast world, in which deals and careers can be made or lost in nanoseconds (or so it seems) that we do not take adequate time to rest, recharge, and reflect. In other words, we are overdosing on work, interruptions, information, and mediated communication. We are losing sight of the fact that humans need respite to think, experience, and grow. It is no wonder that people sometimes have ambivalent feelings about their mobile phones and computers, technologies that are undeniably central to daily life and immensely beneficial. And it is no wonder that more and more people are recognizing the benefits of technology sabbaticals and are turning off some of their electronic gear, from time-to-time. Yoga and other types of mindfulness training have become enormously popular in the United States and many other parts of the world, during the last few years. One explanation for this phenomenon is that these practices incorporate techniques for focusing that are profoundly valuable in always-on, multitasking-oriented environments.

Jeremy Rifkin on conceptions of time



To thrive in a culture of efficiency, it is vital to carve out time to foster physical and emotional health, to build and sustain meaningful relationships, to contribute to the communities where we live and work, and to repair the world. For the time-pressed, this is a tall order on an already ambitiously-packed agenda. But even small steps will enhance well-being and personal satisfaction and will have rippling, positive repercussions. So seize the moment: work, play, and rest; balance, breathe, and renew.

  
Left: Displacing Place
Right: The Culture of Efficiency



This article was written for receiver.

Contact: Sharon Kleinman