Declaring messaging bankruptcy

[chipotle]

I read an interesting column on TidBITS; while this is a Mac news site, “Instant Messaging for Introverts” isn’t platform-specific. Instead, it’s about the author’s problem using IM and similar apps, and trying to explain first what an introvert is (i.e., not “shy, withdrawn, afraid of crowds, or lacking in social skills”) and why this can lead to the problems he’s describing:

Introverts typically need to concentrate on just one thing at a time, and are often particularly sensitive to interruptions and distractions. Now, I happen to think “multi-tasking” is a concept that should never, ever be applied to human beings (regardless of personality type), but be that as it may, I can certainly say that I’m easily distracted, and having more than one thing to think about actively at any given time is sure to make me both ineffective and grumpy. Chatting online while also working on another task, therefore, is unthinkable.

As Rands observed in his article about “Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder,” or N.A.D.D., the state of having a half-dozen different activity windows scattered about your computer screen isn’t multi-tasking. It’s context switching, or less generously, an inability to focus. I am less sanguine about the upsides than Rands is. People with N.A.D.D. have problems in 2008 that they didn’t in 1998 and really didn’t in 1988. The internet, and particular its flirtations with ubiquitous presence, offer opportunity for immediate distraction that has never existed before in all of history. No, I don’t think that’s an exaggeration.

In 2006, Internet law guru Lawrence Lessig wrote to his e-mail correspondents, “Bankruptcy is now my only option” and deleted all their messages, asking them to resend anything particularly pressing. I’ve gotten reasonably good at managing e-mail without just deleting it all, but I’m considering declaring IM bankruptcy.

Sound nuts? Here’s the thing. Suppose I have an IM window open and a MUCK window open, as I’m wont to do, and a couple of hours elapse. Now three or four (or five or six) tabs are open in Adium, each a different conversation; two or three MUCK characters are online, at least one of whom is sitting in a room with a handful of other characters, some trying to interact with him or her. In addition, several people will almost certainly be “paging” to one or more of those characters intermittently, in effect creating separate private communication channels.

That’s a half dozen or more one-on-one conversations and one or more group conversations at the same time. You wouldn’t attempt something that absurd in “real life,” but the mental context switching that you have to do online is the same. And if I’m sitting in front of the computer, the chances are there are other windows I’m trying to pay attention to, like a web browser or a text editor.

This is, pardon the language, objectively batshit.

Since many—not all, but many—of my correspondents across the internets read this, I’m going to put this here as a general beg for understanding. My “real job” work often requires real job attention, and I’ve learned from experience that I cannot write fiction and have any other communication window open. Given that at the moment I’m trying to write a novel as well as, at the immediate moment, an unrelated short story I need to get done ASAP… well, here’s my thoughts.

• When I am on MUCKs, I may turn off pages more than I historically have. It’s difficult enough to keep up when I have a character in a busy room having “cocktail party” conversations — throw in a couple page conversations and it gets psychotic. (VR social dynamics apparently dictate the only cause for missing someone’s cues is because you hate them.)

• I’m going to try to be more aggressive about setting my IM “away” when I don’t want to be disturbed. I’m going to try to do this instead of just not being on IM at all, but respect the away-ness.

• When I really can’t be disturbed I’m just going to shut the IM client off, and log off the MUCKs. Sorry. Email, Twitter and even SMS will all get in touch with me in ways that don’t break my concentration (but won’t get an immediate reply).

Oh. And sometimes, when I am online, it may be appropriate to ask me if I’ve actually gotten the shit done today that I need to get done. I have about a decade of NADD to try and dig my way out of.

Comments

[tikaani.livejournal.com]

It puzzles me why you don't do the latter more often. I guess coming from work-situations where connectivity is highly restricted and monitored, I'm more used to "work is for work time". Even now, every client I use is a conscious choice to start. If I know I'm going to be working time on my MMO support I don't start IM or tf. Of course, I'm not as popular a victim ;>

[hyniof.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link:

To the Tidbits article. I have no cell phone, I don't use IM or Twitter or any of those things, and I've often wondered why I seem unable to. Also why it takes me all afternoon to compose a single e-mail message. Or why uit's taken me ten minutes to write this... :)

Mike

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

See you in May? :-)

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

I don't expect to be that hard to catch online!

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I think I had a momentary sense of panic. But I do approve of what you're trying to do, most definitely. I'm sorry if that didn't come across in the above comment.

[smudge-dragon.livejournal.com]

And people wonder why I refuse to install an IM.

I've been asked by a couple of clients "Why don't you have an Instant Messanger?"

My reply usually sounds like, "You want me to get work done, don't you?

[susandeer.livejournal.com]

You've summed up quite succinctly what I've been feeling for a long time. Working alone has compounded the problem and, I suspect, lead to acute internet addiction. I've gotten better about keeping less things open or active and setting myself away on AIM. I need to remember to turn off muck paging more often. I'm trying to save all of my comics reading for the end of the week. As for LJ... good grief. Catch 22.

[bfdragon.livejournal.com]

I tried working while having an instant messenger where I have a lot of contacts open at work precisely once. It was an enormous distraction, and have never tried it again. Any sort of important topic takes up a good deal of attention, which leaves only conversations of so little importance well.. why bother if they are of so little importance? The only time IMing at work ever worked for me was when with my Google talk client because it just happens to have only a couple of contacts, and the person I was talking to was busy as well, so, 30-40 minute pauses between responses was normal. Anything more then that and it came to be an interference, and an unwelcome one, at that.

I suppose if it's both short like an IM, at will where someone isn't waiting for you to reply, and things are kept to a minimum, it can be a somewhat welcome distraction. It's just so easy to cross the line, however, I prefer to just avoid it. Besides, there is also the whole other issue of privacy. Which can be an issue, as people come in and out of my office or workspace, or I need to show something on my machine, I don't need all that stuff lingering around.

[wordslinger.livejournal.com]

I'm totally NADD-ed. Le sigh.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

I'm so relieved it's not just me. I've been havened consistently on Taps for years, and gotten a lot of crap for it. Some people apparently don't have any trouble with getting six conversations at once, but I'm not one of them. o.o;

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

My untested but long-observed theory is that the vast majority of people who believe they can manage six conversations at once are, just like people who are sure they can talk on the cell phone and drive without either activity impacting the other, wrong -- and for much the same reason. The context switch between "talk on phone" and "pay attention to road, idiot" is more dramatic than the context switch between multiple conversations, but one only has so much attention to give.

It's my experience on MUCKs that people heavily multi-alting tend to ratchet down their interaction considerably either with everyone or with all but one of the people they're talking/playing with, sometimes to the point of reducing multiline dialogue to two- and three-word poses. I have never been a subscriber to the "if you're not overflowing the text buffer you're not trying" school of roleplay (my own rarely-seen Taps character has a somewhat surly cinfo field that reads, in part, "You can be eloquent and concise. Read some Hemingway, people")... but if you can't manage better than "Character verbs you" just stop, please, and come back when your brain's engaged.

[(Anonymous)]

Good for you!!

David

[footpad.livejournal.com]

This chimes so resonantly with my own problems that I have exacerbated my distractions by adding you to them. LJ teen-angst social conventions need not apply, reciprocal beFriending not solicited, &c. &c.