xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#' Yeah. Good Times.: Blogging has made me flaky and anti social

Friday, June 24, 2011

Blogging has made me flaky and anti social


Back in the olden days... when I was in high school... probably before some of you were even born.... whatever.... there were a limited number of ways you could use to contact people. You could send them a letter, write them a note and slip it into their locker at school, you could stop by their house or you could call them. If they weren't home when you called, hopefully somebody would answer and take a message, OR they might have an answering machine, if you were lucky.

Enter computers and now you have email on top of the phone message. This is actually better, IMO; you can email somebody any time of the day or night and you don't have to think on your feet all the time. Except... when you send an email and they don't respond.... did they actually get it? I hate that; I've always hated that. It's rude to not respond when somebody sends you an email; at least let them know you got it. As such, I've always made enormous effort to respond to every single email I ever got. Even if it just said ":)" It's possible I annoyed people with that, but at least my conscience was clear!

Now enter cell phones and we have a 2nd telephone method of contacting somebody, along with text messages. We're up to about 5 or 6 at this point; still pretty manageable, I think, especially since some of them replace some of the other ones.

We progress through the years and different computerized versions of contact are added. Chats, message boards, AOL, IRC (I never used it but I'm going to mention it here so that you think I'm cool). Then MySpace, Facebook, Twitter.....

Now that I've started blogging I seem to have added an infinite number of methods to my "ways to contact me" list, about 1,000 more people trying to do so and DAMN it's getting hard to manage! I've started becoming unable to respond to everything the way I used to, and now I'M the rude one!

I hate it!!!

I'm going to list them all for you, in the unlikely event that you feel like feeling sorry for me right now:
  1. Home phone
  2. Cell phone
  3. Text message
  4. Blackberry Messenger
  5. Personal email
  6. Blogger email
  7. Professional email
  8. Message board #1 private message
  9. Message board #2 private message
  10. Facebook message
  11. Facebook wall
  12. Twitter @ message
  13. Twitter DM
  14. Y.GT. Blog comment
  15. Variety of chats or IMs that I rarely use but are still a way to contact me so I'm calling them all just one way
Fifteen! Fifteen different ways to get a hold of me, and fifteen places I need to check to see if I need to get back to somebody. I'm probably missing some, too, but I can't think of any more right now.

I don't mean to complain ("yeah, suuuuuuuuure you don't, Jill" is what you're thinking right now), but ever since I've been blogging it's become too much for me! I've started to become the people that I hate; the ones that don't respond when you contact them. I hate that!! I don't want to be like those people!!

So.... if you've contacted me by any of these methods, or any method I didn't even list, and I didn't respond.... OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY. I don't mean to be rude. I really don't! I've just managed to get in a little over my head with all of this, it seems. I get overwhelmed and when I get overwhelmed it's easier to just do nothing than to try to push through it all. Please try again, using a different method?



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MiddleFingerGuy's avatar

MiddleFingerGuy · 718 weeks ago

You forgot the fax machine! Anyway, I'm old enough to remember all but the telegraph machine. Damn, you know how to make someone (me) feel old.
1 reply · active 718 weeks ago
I'm still older than you are, remember
I feel the same. I hate when someone doesn't even respond back. Me? I will keep sending you messages until you respond. Dammit Validate me!
ANother lil thing i have I wonder if you share this...I have to organize said messages into friend folders or delete them or organize them in some way. I hate an inbox full of read stuff.
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1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Me too! But then I end up with all these folders full of read stuff that hasn't been responded to....
It's going to get much easier when one day soon, we can communicate telepathically. Or, it'll make our brains short out and heads blow up. Either way, I think it'll be easier.
My recent post Why Pay to go to the Circus
1 reply · active 718 weeks ago
I think you're right
@MiddleFingerGuy Does anyone actually use the fax machine anymore?! Well, other than the government. My god, I have been back at work since October and I haven't sent a single fax.

Ah dear Jill, there is never a need to apologize for not responding. Why you ask? Hell, we might not have even noticed that you didn't respond because we are also up in our eyeballs in messages that we need to respond to.

See, this is how technology has made an entire generation of people rude . . . without actually meaning to be rude.
Jenn
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Watch out, now people will contact you all fifteen ways every time they want your attention. ;)
My recent post The Garden in its not Glory
1 reply · active 718 weeks ago
I know. What have I done??
It's daft isn't it?! We are living our lives in a goldfish bowl, never a moment when people don't know where we are!!

CJ xx
This is exactly why I got off Facebook and have never done Twitter. I just can't keep track of it all. If you want to reach me, send me an email, call me on the phone (via text relay service), or text me. We can also Skype if you like. I'm old fashioned that way.

My recent post Miscellaneous and Sundry
2 replies · active less than 1 minute ago
But.... I don't know your number
It's IMA-BABE. Call toll-free.
My recent post Miscellaneous and Sundry
Yeah, I get that, too
Dude... them's fightin words
You're soooo popular. We get it. :-P (I'm still that person that responds to every one with a sideways smiley face, but look- I added the capital P so you know I'm just joshing you or some such BS! )

I'm totally paranoid my cell phone is going to give me cancer, but does that stop me from having all my notifications forwarded to it? Nope.
My recent post Ive Totally Stopped Trying
The opposite is also now becoming true, at least in business communications. I am like you and try to reply to everything, especially e-mail so that people know I got it, but recently, people have been asking me NOT to thank them or to respond with "got it" or "10-4" because there is so much information to plough through that niceties have become bothersome. Kind of a sad commentary on our society--makes me scared that manners and kindness will soon be a thing of the past.
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Remember when people had beepers/pagers? That was short lived.
My recent post A Week in Photos
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
SHIT! I knew I forgot one. I used to have one of those, too
LOVE Twitter!
Are people really irritated that you don't respond? Dude. Totally not worth it to me. I try to get to everything (you forgot Facebook Groups!), but damn there's only 24hrs in a day and these four little life sucking children need me to feed, bathe and clothe them.

Someone needs create an information hub where ALL of those can arrive in one place. So you can try to remember one more password, ha.
My recent post The One Where It All Falls Apart...
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Oh, no. Nobody is irritated. They think I'm mad at them or I don't care about them, which is actually worse because I've unintentionally hurt somebody's feelings. I can understand it, though, because if you have no information coming from the other side you're forced to make assumptions about what's going on in the other person's head and it's easy to assume that it's personal.
I can't keep up. And even though I try to keep everything separate, it all gets jumbled up and soooo stressful. I can't imagine if I had a job too.
My recent post Joking Around
I don't even know what half of those things on your list are. So by that rationale, you are cool. Cause I'm pretty cool but obviously still stupid in this aspect.

Feel better?

Can you hear me?

Are you even listening or are you off checking your answering machine?
My recent post mummy time
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Huh? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you, I was checking my fax machine for faxes
And then there's Twitter sending you an email every time someone DMs you, or Facebook emailing you when someone sends you a private message. You can even gets emailed when someone leaves you a voicemail! It's insane. And kind of stresses me out too.

(Not to mention my mom sending me a text message every time she sends me an email or leaves me a voice mail. Really mom? Really?)
My recent post Conversations with Myself
That is the exact reason why I often get in a snit with a couple of my "real friends" because they say their SOOOO busy.
Dude, seriously? I am busy 18hrs a day, but I still will drop a text or an email.
Whatevs.

15 though - that's crazy.
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You forgot stalking.

Stalking is guaranteed.

I know my homegirl, and she likes the attention.

(gotta take what you can get)

xo
I hate that I have to check so many places for people to contact me.

I hate it even more when there's no email/text/phone message/comment for me to return. Blech.
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My computer will contact your computer!
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I miss sky-writing. And smoke signals.
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I stream most of my contacts to my phone or my email (which can also be checked from my phone). I try to get back to everyone, but some days it's just so hard. I shoot for 2 days a week where I spend just responding to everyone. But then what do you do when you get messages or emails that just don't require a response? It's like my kid who repeats "There's a truck outside." Ok, there's a truck outside. But it doesn't require me to respond when you say that. I guess that's why email has a setting where you can get a receipt when the person reads it so you know they got it.
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And here I just assumed you'd roasted my carrier pigeon for dinner...now I see that you're simply being rude, which is actually better I suppose...
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You need a personal assistant. You are just too popular. Now, who will it be?
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my fancy phone gives me notifications when i get an email, tweet, facebook notification, text, and the very rare phone call. i try and keep up with everything but then i don't want to be one of those people that reply right exactly when i get the message and end up forgetting to reply.
but now i have made a conscious effort to be in the now and if something is going on and i'm actually interacting with a real live human being then i pay attention to them and leave my phone elsewhere.
unless they're being an ass then i'm all clicky click in there face.

(also i'm new here and love it and will be sticking around)
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