No emails Fridays?
I guess Penn is well paid to produce statistics that help Clinton read the American zeitgeist. What’s clear is the BlackBerry prayer position — head bowed, hands together, thumbs going — is a solipsistic emblem of our age. As the New York-Washington shuttle touches down, 93.5 percent of those on board go into the prayer stoop.
I just made that number up, but the fact is, most BlackBerry-armed travelers are hopelessly susceptible to that can’t-not-look-at-it feeling. It’s not that they believe something has happened. It’s a need — CrackBerry addiction.
Now that work is not a building but a state of mind, thanks to technology and the knowledge-based economy, you can never stop if that’s how you want to live, although simultaneous turkey stuffing and BlackBerry use is tricky.
I asked Karissa Thacker, a management psychologist, why reaching for a hand-held electronic device to e-mail or instant-message — an iPhone, BlackBerry, Treo or whatever — has become such a reflexive movement, one that makes it difficult to embrace vacation as vacation.
She told me: “A BlackBerry poses three problems. Can you manage your need for control? Can you manage your need to be important? Can you manage your need to feel in the know? These are real psychological challenges because at any moment you can jump in and fire off an e-mail and get closure immediately. But it’s superficial closure.”
So you thought you had a communication device when in fact you have an ego-meter? That’s about the sum of it. Because let’s face it, e-mail is a bummer and addiction to it perverse.
Tal proponen en el NY Times, viernes sin email. Este anho me propuse mirarlo solamente cuatro veces al dia: a las ocho, las doce, las cuatro y las ocho, antes de irme a casa. Y una p****, como casi todo. Artículo cortesía de mi rubia francesa favorita.
[Sin ningún motivo especial, sin ningún elemento estético que lo redima de ser pura carne y nada más que hermosa carne, de ésa que llena de nostalgia nada más verla al pensar en cómo quedará tras el sucio ataque del tiempo, lleno de trampas y golpes bajos, Dstudio (via). Ustedes perdonen. Valga para un día como el de hoy, Acción de Gracias, que es momento de exaltación del pavo, la comida y el contacto humano]
