It’s time to say goodbye and unplug our message obsession

Terry Prone reflects on our over reliance on technology and why instant messaging does not make us productive.

DIDN’T email Stephanie once last week. Not once.Nor did I text her. I did get the shakes a couple of times from withdrawal, but I did it cold turkey. That’s because she was on holiday. Stephanie is a colleague, but that’s to understate it a bit. She is the one to whom I have outsourced my brain, and so, whether it’s bills to be paid, water allowances to be claimed or speaking engagements to be sorted, incoming emails hardly get a chance to rest, even briefly, in my inbox before they ricochet to her.

But, because you are SUCH a co-dependent, because you have such a need to be wanted, you opened every message and replied, didn’t you? And don’t tell me that you did it only at one specific time of the day and never went back to your smartphone thereafter, because I’m not going to believe you. You worried yourself into all-day engagement in electronic ping pong.