— by Sue Hunter-Weir, Community Coordinator
Arts Student Community

In case you missed it, this was the week that representatives from a number of companies, including Google and IBM, met at Microsoft headquarters in Seattle to take on the problem of “infomania.” Even though my computer (via spellcheck) doesn’t consider it a real word (neither is “spellcheck” for that matter), advisers and advisees all have a pretty good idea of what it is—the feeling that there is too much coming at you too fast.  It is, according to Forbes magazine, the “disease that can drain your brain.”

The alarm bells went off when a study done at the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London suggested that all of the technological interruptions that we experience in the course of a day decrease productivity, and, worse yet, can cause employees’ IQs to drop by as much as ten points. The second claim, as you can imagine, has been hotly contested. Oddly enough, the study was funded by Hewlett Packard.

But you can rest assured that people are already hard at work designing products and services to help all of us cope. Imagine a roomful of people chimping away on their Blackberrys and coming up with “dashboard” systems that will allow your PC to tell you that you have incoming mail from a VIP that deserves your immediate attention. Or, the snooze alarm feature that allows your e-mail program to rest while you keep plugging away at some other task.  

Meanwhile back on the West Bank, it can take as long as 48 hours for phone messages to wind up in our voice mail. So, we’re working away, and the red light comes on to alert us that we have messages waiting. Unfortunately, the messages are from yesterday or the day before. There don’t appear to be any rules about how and when this will occur, but it gives a whole new meaning to our pledge to “get back to you as soon as possible.”

It brings to mind a recent message about automatic bracketing. It seems that the way to handle a bracketing emergency is to fill out a paper form. The same might be said for our phone system. If we don’t get back to you as quickly as you need, you might call our front desk and ask them to fill out an emergency phone message form for you.  Delivery to our mailboxes guaranteed within minutes.