Sunday, November 25, 2007

Too Great Expectations?

I consider myself on the bleeding edge of technology and communication. Metaverses, Twitter, Jaiku, Meebo, cellphones, IM, etc. I am connected 24/7 in one way or another, and am usually very quick to respond unless I'm a) asleep, or b) teaching.
I'm going to ask this question of you, because I already have the answer for myself.

"Do you expect others to be as connected as you, and does it upset you when they are not?"

I take pride in the fact that people are able to contact me at any given time. My choice changes from "able to be contacted" to "feel like responding". There are always emergencies, and even higher priority issues. If you're unable to reach somebody, you have no way of transmitting that message. Whereas, if the recipient receives the message, they have the choice to respond to it immediately, later, or ignore it completely.
I'd love to hear your comments/thoughts on this. Instant-on communication is not going away, and in-fact will become more prominent in businesses, education, and everyday life more and more. Do we coerce the late-adopters into getting up to speed, or do we all go into counseling to deal with our frustrations?

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