Information Addiction
It’s time to worry people. The economy is fudged, the weather is trying to stop us working and guess what? We have a new type of addiction… Information addiction.
It’s true, people every day are streaming away from bars and restaurants to check their emails. Oh, hold on, no their not, they’re simply checking their emails there and then and ignoring their actual, real-life guests.
I’m a victim.
INTERVENTION TIME (Although, I’m not sure you can give yourself an intervention):
I spend too much time on my iPod Touch, laptop and mobile. FACT.
Here’s a rundown of my information addiction.
- A have two papers delivered every day (The Guardian and The Independent), and read both before I leave for work. I then read another two at work.
- I check my email first at 7am then every fifteen minutes until 11:30pm. In work hours it’s every 2 minutes.
- I check twitter from 7am until 11:30pm too (if I’m in). Tweeting as often as possible, but only tweeting about things I’m doing there and then. Otherwise I get sidetracked and time sunk.
- I listen to Radio Four’s Today Programme on the way to work and download all of the national podcasts, a few techie ones and a few comedy ones for the way home.
- I have Yammerfox on all the time, so whenever something happens at work, I know about it.
- I’m read my RSS feeds at 7:30am over coffee and BBC News 24, at 10am, at 12pm, at 3pm, at 6pm and then again at 10:30pm (if I’m in).
- I check Facebook and LinkedIn intermittently over the day and night.
- On top of this I have Google Alerts and a couple of other services for every client, every potential client, my colleagues, my news interests and (embarrassingly) me.
It’s not cool to want to be this attached, but when I’m not I feel like someone’s removed my brain. Insane in the membrane? Ya Ya.