When one of the most important e-mail messages of his life landed in his in-box a few years ago, Kord Campbell overlooked it.
Not just for a day or two, but 12 days. He finally saw it while sifting through old messages: a big company wanted to buy his Internet start-up.
“I stood up from my desk and said, ”˜Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’ ” Mr. Campbell said. “It’s kind of hard to miss an e-mail like that, but I did.”
The message had slipped by him amid an electronic flood: two computer screens alive with e-mail, instant messages, online chats, a Web browser and the computer code he was writing.
Sounds like he needs to setup a free Gmail account and create some good filters… 😉
I would think a serious offer to buy his company would not be handled through e-mail/text messaging.
Mmm …. trying preaching to kids. I tried a three-minute address specially tailored for kids the other day and after a minute I could not bear to look at them. From their eyes I could tell that many of them had already zoned out. We used to blame TV for their short attention spans but those attention spans have become whole lot shorter. Or possibly my sermons have become a whole lot duller.
And what do we say about the finger-twitchers who cannot let an hour pass by without checking to see what new items Kendall has posted?
#2, perhaps not the formal offer but part of the exchange leading up to it would be.
#3, +Lawrence preached yesterday on Hilton Head, it was long, but not dull, so please don’t despair…
#4–you’d be surprised–I’m rector of an ACNA parish, and I offered a candidate our choirmaster position via text message!
Sorry, that was meant for #2, not #4.
A fascinating but disturbing article that I’m going to have to ponder. Some of the stats here are mind boggling, e.g., that the average American consumes an astounding 12 hours of media daily at home, partly through “multitasking.” Twelve hours??
I don’t know how many people are “hooked on gadgets,” but there are sure a lot of us hooked on news and information. The relatively plastic nature of the brain is now well established. Our behavior literally can “rewire” our neural pathways in the brain. But the harmful effects of multitasking illustrated here do raise some troubling questions, especially when I see how much the Millenial generation engages in frantic multitasking as a way of social networking.
I think there is a great deal to be said for the idea that we are exposing ourselves to a level of constant stimulation for which we simply aren’t designed.
And the plight of deterioated relationships within the Campbell family demonstrates that all too clearly. I mean, I’m sure that selling his startup for a cool $1.3 mil helps ease the pain, but seriously, a guy sleeping with gadgets on his chest?? Yeah, the dad’s addicted all right.
Somehow, it reminds me of Luke’s rather caustic comments about the sophisticated Athenians he chides in Acts 17:21, how “[i]they would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.[/i]” Not true, mind you, but new.
David Handy+
While at a picnic on Memorial Day, all smart phones were out and in use throughout the meal. The tweeted. They posted pictures. They exchanged text msgs. They came and left the table to take voice calls. It hinders engagement and development of conversation. Suggestions that they be switched off reap cold responses. And I just blew my top a few weeks back when one the laypersons serving a chalice still had his Bluetooth earpiece in. We can’t seem to escape it.
Suddenly another epiphany of the utterly obvious! Did anyone not know that this was happening, that adolescents were becoming addicted early, that multitasking was merely a buzzword to cover up an inability to focus on a single goal for more than a minute or two? This is an appalling condition and one that will not be remedied because the cure lies in the hands of the addicts. Larry