10 years ago I had a few ways I kept in touch with my family in a different country. And depending on the situation, it was usually 1 way. If I had my laptop (which was almost always the case) and had decent internet connection, we'd Skype. If either party lacked one of these, we'd call on cellphones. And if it was something formal that needed to be remembered, we used email. Or we used some form of IM but irrespective of which service I would use Adium.
Now? I cannot keep in touch with my family because my communications are split between WhatsApp, iMessage, Viber, Skype, FaceTime, email, Facebook, Facebook MEssenger, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. Nothing works with each other, and simply managing the variety of apps, and the mental calculations to figure out which app to use depending on the context, the people I am communicating with, the combinations of people I am communicating with, the formality of the communication, the stuff being communicated, is just mentally exhausting.
I am afraid to look at my phone when I receive a notification, because there is always a mental calculation that needs to be made about what I need to do next.
This obviously happened earlier, but there was less expectations of immediate responses, so it was easy to manage, as I would simply read and handle my notifications at regular selected times.
Maybe kids growing up in this environment will be (are) much better at managing this, because their brains get wired this way, but as a 30 year old, it's overwhelming, and destroys my productivity.
10 years ago I had a few ways I kept in touch with my family in a different country. And depending on the situation, it was usually 1 way. If I had my laptop (which was almost always the case) and had decent internet connection, we'd Skype. If either party lacked one of these, we'd call on cellphones. And if it was something formal that needed to be remembered, we used email. Or we used some form of IM but irrespective of which service I would use Adium.
Now? I cannot keep in touch with my family because my communications are split between WhatsApp, iMessage, Viber, Skype, FaceTime, email, Facebook, Facebook MEssenger, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. Nothing works with each other, and simply managing the variety of apps, and the mental calculations to figure out which app to use depending on the context, the people I am communicating with, the combinations of people I am communicating with, the formality of the communication, the stuff being communicated, is just mentally exhausting.
I am afraid to look at my phone when I receive a notification, because there is always a mental calculation that needs to be made about what I need to do next.
This obviously happened earlier, but there was less expectations of immediate responses, so it was easy to manage, as I would simply read and handle my notifications at regular selected times.
Maybe kids growing up in this environment will be (are) much better at managing this, because their brains get wired this way, but as a 30 year old, it's overwhelming, and destroys my productivity.