Do you use instant messaging or chat software on your computer? How much of your time does it take up? Have you ever considered turning it off? I do. Look, I’m going to be blunt and perhaps downright cruel here. There are certain technological advancements that really take up more of our time than they should while masquerading as conveniences. Most people I know in professional positions have a love hate relationship with email. Because people have come to expect that when they send an email, they’ll get an immediate replay. What? Why’d it take you thirty minutes to respond to my email? But IM and chat systems are even more insidious.
Let’s take a look at why. When someone sends me an email, they usually need an answer to a work related question or want to let me know about something work related. Now, I get more than enough of those and can perhaps filter them to – ignore, memo to read later, something someone else needs to handle, something I need to handle. But when people instant message me, they want to chat. I mean chat in the sense of saying “do anything interesting last night” or chat in the sense of fussing or gossip “can you believe …” And they expect me to respond because it’s part of being social.
Which for me is where the problem comes in. People tend to use email for distractions that are at least work related. I can put unimportant email aside to respond to later. But people tend to think of IMing as social. So if I don’t respond, it’s perceived the same as ignoring a person standing at my desk saying “hey, how was your weekend.” But the problem is if the person were standing at my desk, they might see that I was in the middle of writing an article and decide I look busy. IM removes that part of the interaction.
So, my answer? I turn off my IM when I need to write or edit. I’m a writer and an author. I have no problem IMing with an editor if we’re working through a problem with a chapter. But when I’m in the middle of a great scene and things are going well, I don’t want to be distracted by someone sending me their favorite LOLcat. I can haz peace and quiet?