Saturday, January 30, 2010

Hopelessly Addicted

Like most twenty-somethings, I am hooked to my cell phone. But worse, I'm hooked to constantly and compulsively checking my work email on my phone WHEN I'M NOT AT WORK.

This means I check my phone as soon as I wake up, while I'm waiting for my straight iron to heat up, while I'm brushing my teeth, while I'm in the car putting my seat belt on, while I'm driving (bad, shh), and then, at the end of the day as soon as I get in my car to go home, I check it again! As if I missed anything from the 5 seconds it took me to walk to my car and while everyone else on my team is on their way out the door, too. Ridiculous. And then, like clockwork, as soon as I walk into my house, I check my email again, and then while I'm cooking dinner, after dinner, before I go to bed, just before I go to bed, etc ... see how bad I am?

Because, what if there's something urgent from my boss? What if I'm desperately needed at 11:27pm? Or, what if that Newsweek reporter I've been trying to reach for months and months finally gets back to me???? It could happen, you never know; he could be struck at any moment with an epiphany and be like, "Oh my gosh, yes, that's what I want the topic of my next cover story to be about! I better email PR Working Girl asap, her story ideas are on fire!"

... Sigh.

Granted, there have been a few times when being able to check email remotely has been a good thing, but it's seriously not often enough to justify this madness. How can I stop? And is there any kind of scientific reasoning to my unexplainable OCD-like need to always be connected? Is it a phone habit thing maybe, and not really a need-to-know-what's-going-on-at-work thing? Maybe there are drugs being emitted from the phone waves. And just for the record, me being employed at a cell phone company has nothing to do with it. This is just simply a real life epidemic, yes?

12 comments:

L.L. said...

One of THE WORST things I learned at one job was how to check my work email from home. I'd put in my 8-10 hours at work and come home and do more emailing for another two or three hours. Awful.

Amber said...

I'm the same way with my work email. My job isn't in a really demanding place right now, but it has been in the past and it could be really stressful!

Sydney Anne said...

I finally set the standard that I check my work email once when I get home after work (just to make sure no urgent calls came in 5-minutes too late), once before bed and once when I wake up. After each of those times, however, I disable my work account on my phone so even if I am tempted to click "mail" nothing comes up! That way I'm still accessible - but not dependent!

Teach.Workout.Love said...

lol i totally hear u on that... it sucks.. but im addicted lol

tessa said...

I purposefully go no where near the Internet on my Blackberry just for this reason, but somehow I still manage to check my work email when I'm in a computer lab on campus, when I'm at home, when my roommate leaves her iPhone sitting around... So I don't think I'm much better!

Shelley said...

My work provided me with a Blackberry, but I still have my personal cell. So I'm that girl at lunch dates that whips out her bb and the other phone. Its insane... and really difficult to find a small purse that houses both!

MonsteRawr said...

I have my phone set up to chime when I get an e-mail. That way, I'm not tempted to check it constantly, because I know that unless it chimed, nothing's there

Content Director - Strong Female Leaders said...

Oh no, you are seriously addicted. Maybe you should turn it off as soon as you get off of work.

Corporate Chickee said...

I feel your pain - my husband is just as addicted to his iPhone. He's constantly checking his work email, and then is furious that people expect him to respond immediately to his emails. I say, then stop checking it every five minutes & don't respond till tomorrow morning!

Is there a way to 'block' yourself out of your email between certain hours? Maybe a tech-person could find a way to do so? If not... I think you just have to hide your phone from yourself or something!


http://corporate-chickee.blogspot.com

E said...

lol I think we can all be guilty of this at some point or another! Sounds like you need a Blackberry so you can check email on the go :)

Unknown said...

Everyone's right...you aren't the only one. It's definitely an epidemic. But maybe we all need to set a limit to the amount of times we check our e-mail to avoid from inbox insanity! What happened to the days of checking our real mailbox that had actual letters in it? Digit@l living can be exhausting!

Ashley Kay said...

I check my email WAY too often.

But I thought I should mention 11/27 is my bday. Thought it was nice that's the number you came up with :)