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"People overload" - The new correlating phenomenon to the Internet's information overload
Intellectual Conservative ^ | August 3, 2008 | Rachel Alexander

Posted on 08/04/2008 9:09:55 AM PDT by az4vlad

If you're thinking about calling me - DON'T!

Along with the Internet's "information overload" has come the vastly expanded ability of people to contact other people. Now, anyone can email anyone in the world. And with email signatures containing contact information, or by asking someone to call you, more and more people are getting your phone number and calling you.

Email is very democratic; it doesn't distinguish between your mom, your employer, or a random press release sent from some organization 3,000 miles away. Sure there are ways to filter emails, but they all come to you in some capacity. There isn't yet a sophisticated way to filter out the emails that don't require any action on your part, versus the ones that do. A random press release might be something you need to see, because it might be something you'd like to write about or email to your friends.

The bigger presence you have on the internet, the more this phenomenon is becoming a problem. Some have tried to counter it by setting up a default email auto-reply which usually says something like thank you for the email, due to the large number of emails received the recipient may not be able to get back to you.

Not everyone understands it. I spend way too much time explaining to half my friends why the other half of my (more active, busier) friends didn't respond to them.  Many people don't even understand this about famous people, who have it ten times worse than the rest of us.

Every email that comes in is a weighing process: work-related emails are first priority, since you depend on your job for income. Family emails are next priority, followed by close friends whose emails clearly require a response (and if you're in politics, that's a LOT of emails). After that, it gets difficult. For every extra email you respond to, you give up other parts of your life: cleaning the house, fixing broken things around the house, cleaning the pool, getting maintenance done on your car, fixing glitches on and improving your websites, doing charitable work, going to the gym, spending time with your significant other, hobbies like writing, or gasp - taking some time for yourself and watching a movie. I feel guilty every time I watch a movie.

I have unfortunately alienated a few people over the years who did not grasp this. I could not respond to all of their emails and phone calls promptly and they became furious with me. It wasn't that I didn't like them, they simply demanded more of my time than I could give them. I don't have a couple hours a day to just gab on the phone generally. Unlike some people, I actually enjoy people. But at some point I need private time to get personal things done. Unfortunately with the advent of cell phones and blackberries, many people think that you are reachable 24/7. There are not enough hours in the day to do this. If I picked up every phone call that came in, I would get nothing done but talk on the phone all day.

After my cell phone bill came in this past month and it was $300 instead of the usual $55, I realized I had encountered a new phenomenon of "people overload." The election season has exacerbated this.

What can be done about this? The average person can't afford a personal assistant. Probably awareness is the best solution. Don't be a time leech. As more people realize that many of us are overwhelmed with requests for contact, they will be more forgiving. If Jane doesn't respond to your mass email forwarding the latest denounced rumor from snopes.com, don't assume she's ignoring you. She may even have read it.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: culture; email; informationoverload; internet; peopleoverload; privacy

1 posted on 08/04/2008 9:09:55 AM PDT by az4vlad
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To: az4vlad
Many people don't even understand this about famous people, who have it ten times worse than the rest of us.

As a famous person myself, in my own mind, I find this to be so.

I'd like to hear from some little people and see if they have similar problems.

t.i.c.

2 posted on 08/04/2008 9:24:38 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (Perhaps I'll change my name to grayhusseinbeard58...or perhaps not.)
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To: Graybeard58

LOL......:o)


3 posted on 08/04/2008 9:26:45 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: az4vlad

People overload? Is that like overpopulation? Doesn’t abortion solve this? /s


4 posted on 08/04/2008 9:31:56 AM PDT by RadioCirca1970 (Welcome to the Terror Dome....)
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To: az4vlad

“Unfortunately with the advent of cell phones and blackberries, many people think that you are reachable 24/7.”

I resisted a cell phone, and now I resist getting a Blackberry, because I want no part of 24/7 reachability. I have many friends who got new slick cellphone technology because their companies paid for it - and then got back-doored into being on-call all the time, because the company paid for it.

Another thing that’s weird is people accepting your contact and then getting huffy like you are wasting their time. A friend was logged on to AOL Instant Messenger. I send him an IM, he sent back a ticked “I can’t talk right now.” If he can’t talk, why is he on AIM, or at least why is he replying to me in the first place?

If I don’t have time to talk, I don’t pick up the call. If it’s important they can leave a message and I’ll get it soon enough - as soon as I can deal with it.

Same with a guy last week who picked up my call, but said he had to go because he was in a meeting. I thought it strange he would pick up a personal call while in a meeting. If I had walked into his office unannounced and interrupted a meeting I would have felt badly, but in this case he elected to interrupt his own meeting to take my call, so I didn’t feel the onus was on me.


5 posted on 08/04/2008 9:40:37 AM PDT by MIT-Elephant ("Armed with what? Spitballs?")
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To: az4vlad
A random press release might be something you need to see, because it might be something you'd like to write about or email to your friends.

I don't need to see a random press release. I can GO to the press and see the press release there.

And I don't need to be forwarded random press releases from friends, thankyouverymuch.

6 posted on 08/04/2008 9:41:36 AM PDT by weegee (Hi there.)
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To: MIT-Elephant
I resisted a cell phone, and now I resist getting a Blackberry ...keep fighting the good fight. This from an IT geek who desperately resisted, and ultimately failed, getting a company Blackberry.

Vacation this year is in a house that has no phone, no cell coverage, and no computer connection. I can't wait.

My pet peeve is the fools that call/email/whatever me to tell me to "Get on Instant Messenger" just in case they "need to work with me". Close second are the fools that you see in Target/WalMart/whereever with cell phones attached to their ears, yakking away and oblivious to everyone else. I made the Target clerk's day last weekend....there were three people in front of me, all on their cell phones, and not one of them even acknowledged the poor girl. Just by recognizing her, and thanking her for her help, made her grin from ear to ear.

7 posted on 08/04/2008 9:59:40 AM PDT by wbill
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To: MIT-Elephant

Completely concur. I don’t understand how/why people think that a phone call is so important they have to drop everything to pick up every call.

When a phone is ringing around me, if I’m talking to another person, I’ll push it to VM. Or just let it ring and a message machine picks it up. People who have priority (eg, spouse) get a distinctive ring.

People will be talking with me, my phone rings and they’ll stop talking, expecting that I’m going to take a call instead of talk to the person directly in front of me. They’re confused (and somewhat amazed) when I ignore the phone and keep talking to them.

Don’t get me started on the IM craze and how people mis-manage their priorities there.


8 posted on 08/04/2008 10:22:09 AM PDT by NVDave
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To: az4vlad

>> Sure there are ways to filter emails, but they all come to you in some capacity. There isn’t yet a sophisticated way to filter out the emails that don’t require any action on your part, versus the ones that do. <<

Not requiring “ANY” action can hardly be expected to work, after all your email client (or server app/profile) needs to know or learn YOUR filter parameters. But very little action (and time) is usually required to set a combination of “priority white list” and “black list” filters. And training (or using built-in presets and available on Internet “spam lists” which are constantly updated) even a half-decent, and often free, Bayesian spam filter will cut down on spam and prioritize your email experience within days if not hours.

Also, here’s a plug for a tiny, lightweight, fast, portable, secure, virus-worm-script-trojan-safe free email client that’s been a joy to use. While not necessarily replacing heavy duty clients, it may be used as a pre-processor to get rid of bulk of irrelevant emails.
http://www.ultrafunk.com/products/popcorn/

Can search for “Bayesian spam filter” for many implementations of free and low-cost spam killers.


9 posted on 08/04/2008 2:31:59 PM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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