Plugged into Productivity

Today we understand the word “connection” in a different way than ever before. Its meaning has increased tenfold and the way life functions has changed because of it. Thanks to the internet, we became connected to a world of information. Any question on the tip of our tongues could be answered with a tap of the fingertips. From Ask Jeeves, to Yahoo, to Google taking over the world, the weather in Mongolia could be discovered just as easily as what farts smell like in space. Internet connection soon led to virtual human connection with Myspace, AIM, and Facebook (and everything else that followed), changing the way friendships are not only maintained but created. Gone are the days of easily getting rid of people you never wanted to hear from again, because to be sure, someone in your news feed is connected with them and will know everything. On the other hand, the new-found connection of social media is wonderful because it provides a plethora of interesting and easy ways to keep in touch, organize meetings and events, and check out that guy you met at the bar last night that may or may not be creepy.

But what happens when connection goes out? 

The internet, for all its strengths, is a tenuous creature. If there is a power shortage, or just somehow the WiFi goes down, a person is out of luck. The day cannot go on as it normally would. I’m not talking about suddenly being cut off from Facebook, though for some that is a travesty. I’m talking about the normal activities for which we now rely on internet connection. Looking for jobs, checking work emails, completing something time sensitive, taking tests, doing homework. The list goes on and on. Beyond that, it destroys what has become part of our language and common narrative now: “Oh, let me google it.” What do we do when we can’t know something immediately?

Some might say we shrug and move on and accept it; that it doesn’t really cramp anyone’s day. I would say, though, for a good many Americans out there, the inconvenience of lack of connection has the power to dampen one’s day quite a bit. When a person literally cannot progress with the activities one has planned or actually needs to do, that is not only annoying but prevents productivity. The question of how to proceed next looms and paralyzes because the problem is, we are quickly phasing out the alternative ways to get things done without the internet. Take for example the accounting profession. A decade, or maybe a little more, ago, they were processing tax returns by hand, or at least had the ability to do so, both in skill and tools. Today, most information is stored electronically and must be filled out electronically. They can’t take work home as easily because they need the system on their work computer, so their tax season hours, always long, are now even moreso separated from family life because they can’t simply hole away on a corner of the table with a calculator. And some perhaps wouldn’t have the skill set to do this even if they wanted to.

You may say this is an extreme example, and the average Joe can just go to the local coffeehouse and steal its connection, but what if they are out too? 

What if nobody has connection?

I wonder if a hundred years ago, lack of connection was felt so strongly, or what it felt like at all. Obviously they did not have the internet, but in the ways that were available to them, how did it change their lives to be cut off and did it feel as rifting as it does today? When the post office for some reason had a travesty, and one couldn’t post a letter or receive one, did that cripple the day? Phone calls were expensive, so communication was limited anyway. With everything written and transacted by hand, what went wrong? A pencil broke? Aren’t there always more pencils?

I do not wish to look back on history with rose-colored glasses. These are genuine questions which probably cannot be truly answered, but they lead me to wonder if all the benefits of connection actually put us at a certain loss. When the lights go out, do they leave behind frustrated, stressed, over-reactive, and unproductive people? Or do we still have the spirit to shake it off, find a new activity, and accept a certain lack of productivity? 

There I think a crucial crux of the matter. Because we take connection as the norm, our ideas of productivity are enormous, and our reactions to getting behind match it. This mentality is a hold over from the age of industry, where factory workers had to fulfill quota and quota was more important than health. Unfortunately this is still the case is some places, and perhaps mentally it is still the case in the minds of many common American workers. The world functions on numbers and deadlines. But what if for one instant we were generous, and generous without penalty? What if it was acceptable to say, “I’m sorry, our power went out and that didn’t get done but it’s okay because everyone is understanding and you won’t get penalized for having your tax return to the IRS late and I won’t get penalized by you because you know how it feels”?  What would that look across the globe? Do the things we think really need to get done actually need to be done or is it simply because we have structured it that way? And why have we done so?

It seems to me a world with charity within its structure would be a much better place: charity towards others, and charity towards self. We need to allow ourselves to take a day, to be unproductive, to write letters instead of emails for the very reason that they will take longer to get to a place but they will be hand delivered. In the course of mailing a letter, there are several points of connection, it passes through several hands. What does that look like on the internet?