Our Eletronic Brains

I'm hardly a Luddite. In fact I've been battling Luddites all my life. As a Professor of Management of Technology, I embraced technology in all its glory. I developed online courses which I turned into a profitable business. Technology is good. Its always coming. It changes things. It changes things faster and faster.

The problem, for me, now is that it is getting into my brain. No, I'm not talking about implants. It's not physically getting into our brain, its engulfing our world view.

How often do you check your email? Recent polls show that people check their email more than twice a day on average. With that comes the expectation that if you send someone an email, they should get back to you within 24 hours, if not faster. That in turn makes you compelled to keep on top of your emails, your voice mails, your Facebook, your texts and tweets and whatever else your hooked into. So you keep checking. And checking. And replying.

The brain is a very pliable organ. It likes routine. Why do you think most old farts like me are set in our ways? We developed our own rhythm to life. But this rhythm we are developing now is too rushed. Too obsessive. Too impersonal by feeling personal. How many people do you interact with whom you have never met. That number is skyrocketing for most of us.

Can't change it. Technology is what it is. No one controls it. Never have, never will.

I have decided to change it for me anyway. I check my email twice a week now. I don't use Facebook much, unless I get an interesting note for an old friend or I upload a nice picture for all you e-addicts out there. NO tweets. Way too voyeuristic and obsessive.

So how you doin? I'm gonna read a book.