Skip to main content

Too Hot, Too Cold

Who could forget the children’s classic, Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Possibly imagined as a cautionary tale, the protagonist burglar inadvertently exposes the child reader to relativism and harmony. Each new encounter within the bear’s home is an exercise in finding balance. Keep this narrative in mind as we serve up some metaphorical bowls of porridge in our Web 2.0 Test Kitchen.

When it comes to our interconnectedness, how much time and attention is just right? The answer is fairly simple, it's relative to the person. We each have our own threshold on sustained attention over a period of time. With regards to social networks, I can honestly say that I haven’t found that balance. I’m either in a prolonged state of connectivity or the esoteric hermit that barely peeks outside his mountaintop cave only to scurry back into obscurity.

My work-related connectedness has been demanding and follows Ranie and Wellman’s (2012) assertion that “many workers experience some negative impacts of ICT on their work life: prolonged working hours, increased availability outside of normal working hours, and a distraction at work” (p. 189). Feelings of anxiety may escalate with increased commitment to tasks. The only option is to push back and resolve the issue.

Recent solutions have included removing notifications from my smartphone and committing to checking email at longer intervals rather than with high frequency, when out of the office. The consequences of cognitive load are obvious. Fragmented attention affects performance by taxing our concentration. Prioritization of personal/private time is key as a healthy work-life balance is crucial to providing thorough and detail-oriented output.

So, how do you balance your network connectedness?

Connections by GDJ CC by 2.0

References
Ranie, L., & Wellman, B. (2012). Networked: the new social operating system. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 8, 2017 at 8:05 PM

    I never really thought about how spending many times a day at shorter intervals on my device is affecting my consciousness. Things like social media, email, and personal messaging at constant intervals does cause me to be distracted, unengaged, and builds anxiety. I keep hearing that automation and technology will remove the need for 40 hour work weeks. Yet, the work just keeps coming. Finding the balance for me comes with deadlines. Once a task has a due date I can plan accordingly. Then I’m done. That or I just become disinterested and stop. I should track how much time I spend here and there checking my phone. I bet it’s more than I’d like to admit.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Couple of Goodies from the Pantry

So, I'm trying to find some complementary items to enhance my main ingredient, Twitter. I'm thinking a heavy helping of Hootsuite and a dash of Canva for flavor. Let's take a look at a couple of the goodies from the Test Kitchen pantry. That's just my themed out slang for the Internet. As best as I can gather, Hootsuite will be our preferred social media management tool. I'm sure we can squeeze out some sweet analytics but probably not all options while we're on the no-pay plan. And hey, it's not just for Twitter. This tool can manage multiple accounts across a variety of social networks. Cutting through millions of posts and accounts simply by entering search terms is immediately possible without a learning curve. See below as I track down a previously prepared tweet within a few minutes of setting up an account. Canva , on the other hand, is just a treat. This graphic design web-based app will provide you with zero analytics (as far as I know) and ...
3 comments
Read more

Lunch Bytes: 05

With all that we are gifted from the open resources community, how can we contribute and give back? Fortunately, Creative Commons has provided a tool that both serves the commons and is engaging enough for the end user to pony up. With this, the Web 2.0 Test Kitchen is taking a moment to praise CC and stock the commons with our own content. The List , is a Creative Commons developed application that allows users to snap some pics and directly upload. Under the GNU license, it’s a free program for all. You’ll just need a smartphone that meets the technical requirements. As soon as you install and open the app, you'll see the Creative Commons CC logotype. You're in! Once, the app opens you’ll be prompted as to the current needs of Creative Commons with a request for a specific type of subject matter. For example, “Creative Commons needs a picture of…”. You have the choice to accept, move to the next request, or hit "done". All items selected will fall un...
2 comments
Read more

Meme Buffet

You’ve seen them all over your social media account feeds or maybe on some blogs. They’re images, animated gifs, videos and the content is viral.  Some can be funny, others offensive (or even brutally honest). In the Web 2.0 Test Kitchen, we’re looking at memes and customizing them for educational purposes. So, pile it on because it’s all you can eat at the meme buffet. You do realize by now, I have no friends. The message in a meme moves Internet fast. That’s like really fast, guys.  There is a specific weaponized meme employed among trolls, the image macro.  Unlike animated gifs and video, they’re static and have textual content overlaid on some ridiculous satirical image culled from the Web and pop culture zeitgeist. The content is based on pointing out an epic fail or reflecting the meme creator’s perspective. Its purpose is to efficiently communicate a message without any wordiness. In an effort to bring some educational context to using memes, I decided t...
1 comment
Read more