I was sitting at lunch yesterday with the partner of a friend and he was typing on his phone the whole time, or it felt like it. And when he wasnt he looked like he wanted to be typing on his phone to someone clearly more interesting than us. I dont blame him. Ive been accused of the same thing in the past. Still, it got me thinking about how intrusive being constantly connected has become. As a journalist, we are required to be available at all times. When I started out as a reporter I was told (the hopefully apocryphal) tale of a journalist who went to his room while covering the lead up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and was so exhausted he told the hotel staff to not disturb him while he slept. Well...unfortunately they were German and they took him at his word. The Wall fell and he slept on and despite the begging and threats of his editors back home his rest was not interrupted. And when he finally did rouse himself from a well-deserved slumber...he was fired for missing the biggest story of his life. In this job, Ive always been used to being at the end of a phone or an email if something happens. Im fine with that. Its my job. But now Im expected to tweet, and Facebook, and Reddit and Instagram always and forever, building my (and by extension my companies) brand. I was just on vacation and I deliberately barely tweeted and I lost 17 followers. It hurt. Where does it end? I worry about what Im teaching my almost two year old daughter about inter-personal relationships when I am more interested in tweeting my life than living it. So Im calling for a #dayofrest for social media. Just one day in the week when we can say, I am NOT available to anyone except the people I love and the people who pay my salary. Are you with me? (and if you are, call me on the phone to tell me because tomorrow is my #dayofrest)
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 23:06:59 +0000
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