BROKEN PROMISES

Sure, information technologies have delivered tremendous efficiencies to business process. Information technologies have and are driving tremendous economic growth. I am not for one-minute deriding these advances.

Rather, I’m lamenting the loss of leisure. Or, perhaps it is the misalignment of priorities that is stealing our time.

Consider:

How often have you been late for an occasion with family or friends because you “just wanted to check e-mail” before you left?

Do you regularly get short-changed on sleep because you’ve lost track of time just finishing up a little work before bedtime?

How much have you passed by for the benefit of getting more work done?

It’s not the technology, it’s how we use it – 24/7 – that is the problem. And far from being a Luddite who wants independence from technology, I’m just a bit overworked and want to enjoy a bit more of the summer.

Now, if I can just get through my in-box...

Chris Shipley is the executive producer of NetworkWorld's DEMO Conferences, Editor of DEMOletter and a technology industry analyst for nearly 20 years. Shipley, has covered the personal technology business since 1984 and is regarded as one of the top analysts covering the technology industry today. Shipley has worked as a writer and editor for variety of technology consumer magazines, including PC Week, PC Magazine, PC/Computing, and InfoWorld, US Magazine and Working Woman. She has written two books on communications and Internet technology, has won numerous awards for journalistic excellence, and was named the #1 newsletter editor by Marketing Computers for two years in a row

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