As I sit typing this post in a Starbucks, whilst having a gallon of coffee (their choice, not mine) and an almond croissant, I overhear a conversation between a young mum and, I assume, her mum. As the mother sits with her white iPhone clamped to her ear the conversation (at least the bit I can hear) goes something like this: "... I left a message on your phone and wanted to make sure that you'd got it, so that's why I'm calling, I didn't know if you had received the message..."
Surely, the whole point of leaving a message is because you couldn't get hold the person you were hoping to converse with. You don't need to check that they received the message, otherwise you wouldn't leave a message and you would try again later.
The young mum in question went on to tell the relative how much their daughter had enjoyed going on one of the rides adjacent to the coffee house, whilst the 3- or 4-year-old sat on her own dribbling onto her sandwich. How important was that piece of information? Should I call my father when I have had a wash or issues a new press release for a client? No, of course not.
The problem with mobile phones, and mobile internet for that matter, is that we're all compelled to use these gadgets simply because we can. I remember when I got my first mobile phone and couldn't wait for it to ring; it didn't so I called someone, just because I could. In the early 90s there were few who had mobiles so it was very unlikely to have been called, especially as so many were worried about the perceived cost. At least when it as £5-a-minute (well 50p, I exaggerate) you only made the most urgent of calls. Now, with free talktime on offer it makes sense to try to use up your 6 gazillion free minutes talking absolute bollocks. Unless you work in the evening phone call trade, shall we call it, when you really are paid to talk about such matters (and probably paying £5/minute).
The same problem happens with e-mails. You send one and you sit their expecting an instantaneous reply. Why? What is it about having to have an instant response. You don't receive a postcard or letter and send a response back within minutes of receiving it, so why just because of a flashing icon on your screen?
No wonder that so much time is wasted on nonsense calls and e-mails checking to see if you have received an e-mail; or acknowledging that you have received an e-mail.
It is time to end this instant response mania, for surely it is becoming a mental problem (can I say 'mental' anymore?) for us to feel the need to respond within seconds of receiving a message.
At least I am wrtiting this in my lunchbreak between meetings, so at least these 10 minutes have not cost the economy a bean.
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