Is it possible?
As someone who is vitally interested in all things communication oriented, especially regarding technology, I found this piece on IBM dude Luis Suarez very interesting, but also perhaps a little perplexing.
He has, apparently, shifted away from email as much as possible and focused most of his communication with colleagues to IM, and to me this is totally mystifying. IM, to me, is perhaps the most invasive and distracting piece of tech in existence, whereas at least with email you have the option to choose when and how to deal with stuff that comes your way. Whether you are driven by email or not is simply a matter of personal discipline and good work habits/systems. And, aside from this issue of interruptions, I wonder how it works with communicating across a bunch of different time zones, where email would definitely have an advantage of being less time-bound. Luis apparently lives in the Canary Islands, so you’d have to think time zones would become an issue now and then.
I dunno… perhaps some of you have had better experiences with IM, but to me it’s hard to justify… every time I tinker with it, I quickly turn it off because it is just such a disruptive thing to have, unless you specifically only turn it on when you schedule time for IM stuff, which seems to kill the interactive nature of it a bit. I watch young people get absolutely nothing done in a day because they’re just constantly involved in a variety of inane IM chats that keep dragging their focus away. Add the tech to a phone, and they’re done for when it comes to productivity!
As for Facebook, I’m quickly developing some strong thoughts about that which I will share in the next few days, my vacation permitting… :-)
2 comments ↓
context is everything – are you considering these modes of technology from a business/time management framework or as a way of dialoguing? surely IM is no more an intrusion into our world than what we want it/allow it to be – just like the mobile phone, email or facebook.
i think it gets interesting when people favour/utilise one mode of communication over another, ie. if someone doesn’t check their email regularly, and leaves their mobile phone at home most days, but is on facebook for hours every day, then to send an email or call a mobile phone becomes ineffective and potentially redundant/outdated.
I think, like lots of things in life, knowing how the person we wish to communicate with best hears things, is vital in determining what method we employ when seeking to engage with them. Not sure this is a value-based thing – it could just be the way it is. In fact isn’t it the way things have always been?
yes, you’re right. context is everything. the right tool for the job, and all that. and, i suppose, when it comes right down to it, most of our issues with any of these tools or media is simply an issue of our own indiscipline or lack of ability to create appropriate boundaries. so, in a business environment like IBM, i suppose IM could work just dandy if you’re prepared to only get into chats when you choose to, which would of course be just like not answering your phone right away, or dealing with email slavishly as it arrives.
you do raise an interesting angle of thought, however, and that is about whether we should always favour a communication approach preferred by someone, or rather favour the best communication approach for a specific situation? so, for example, a lot of young adults love texting and would often text far more than call, and yet there are some things that just aren’t appropriate for text, but that would be their default approach if it were up to them. i’ve seen some pretty poor stuff done by text that just amazed me, and what amazed me more was the inability of the person in question to actually discern that this was clearly not the best way to deal with a situation. ditto with IM. and i won’t event touch facebook, where i have seen some amazing stuff communicated.
maybe, and this would be an interesting discussion, we are in a space where in spite of the great riches of tools for communicating, we are generally communicating more poorly than ever…
but, i’m on hols and such thoughts are all a bit lofty for me right now… :-)