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Responding immediately

There can be several benefits of responding to non-critical e-mails immediately. Responding to e-mails immediately results in less tasks that you have to focus on, more free time, taking care of important tasks and communication immediately, not keeping people hanging on, etc.

Responding to non-critical e-mails immediately can also result in a few problems including you making mistakes because of composing a response too fast, forgetting to include something important, responding with something or in a manner that you may regret later because you responded too fast without thinking straight, etc.

Responding later

The benefits of responding to e-mails at a later date can be numerous also, specially when we respond too quickly and make some mistake or forget something. Responding at a later time can result in more time to think of a good response, more flexible time schedule that you can modify to your needs, less sense of panic or hurry when it comes to responding to others, not allowing incoming e-mail to dictate and take over your times, etc.

Responding later to non-critical e-mails can result in a few downsides also, including keeping someone waiting longer even when you did not have to respond immediately, communication between you and someone else going at a very slow rate, the other person losing interest in you or your response or the e-mail topic in question by the time they get your response, etc.

Do you prefer responding to non-critical e-mails right away?

So, do you prefer responding to non-critical e-mails right away?

Please let me know, thanks you.

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1. You use the online language in the offline world.

   On paper, you preferring writing “U” instead of “You.” You say “LOL” in the offline world when you want to laugh. The post office cashier says “Have a nice day” and you say 4 letters “TTYL“, sending the cashier into a world of confusion.

2. You always want to know if your offline contacts have blogs or MySpace or Facebook accounts.

   You make a frustrated face if people do not have any online presence and instead have cell phone numbers to share with you. When you get a speeding ticket, you start wondering if you can pay it online and if the cops have blogs while the cop is writing you a ticket. You wonder if that cop has a MySpace account that you can block.

3. You always think of checking e-mails before you think of getting out of bed in the morning.

   You think of brushing and washing face at least an hour after you wake up, because that is the amount of time you usually spend skimming through many of the e-mails you get. While brushing, you think of how to respond to some e-mails, and how to check more e-mails. Your entire day may revolve around 24 e-mail accounts, and not 24 hourly blocks.

4. You revolve offline activites around online activities.

   You plan going to the movies depending on how long it will take you to watch random videos on YouTube. You plan eating times depending on when no one is online on instant messengers from MSN, Yahoo, Google, AOL, Skype or MySpace; you pause your eating and going out if even a single contact is online to talk to you. You may not talk to them, but you will also not leave them alone in the online world. Food can wait.

5. You cannot remember the last time you stayed offline for more than three hours, except for when you slept for 3 hours and 10 minutes.

   From the moment you wake up, you prefer looking at a monitor or any screen that allows you to access the online world. Even while getting a ride, or getting on the subway, you keep focusing on your laptop or your cell phone to keep in touch with the online world of games and messaging. One of the reasons you hate driving is because you cannot easily access your e-mail through your cell phone while driving; you can, but you do not want to die either. You do not fear death because it is death; you fear it because you do not know if you will be able to check e-mails after you die.

This list told you about 5 random signs that show you spend too much time online. From sticking to online language to wanting all offline people to have an online social networking account, to checking e-mails all the time to revolving your life around the internet, and not remembering the last time you stayed offline for a while, you can figure out whether or not you yourself spend too much time online.

Can you come up with some other points? I am going to end this article now, as I have to do some things online, then eat, and then head out to see either Sunshine or The Simpsons.

Thank you for reading.

[Update: 7 minutes after this article was published: Sunshine started 12 minutes ago. I must have forgotten the timing, or they changed it. Oh well: The Simpsons, or no movie tonight. ]

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Commenting once with multiple thoughts instead of commenting multiple times with multiple thoughts

You may be able to relate this concept to commenting. For example, imagine having someone called Bes post a new comment in response to every sentence in one of your blog articles. That would mean if your article had 10 sentences, Bes would respond to each line of that article in a separate comment, and end up posting 10 separate comments. Would you prefer having 10 single-lined comments by Bes to your article of 10 sentences, or would you prefer having a single comment by Bes with all the 10 lines combined into one or two paragraphs?

Replying immediately to each sentence versus waiting for someone to finish talking before responding collectively

The same idea can probably be seen in daily offline discussions also. You probably do not interrupt other people after every sentence that they say, but you wait until others have finished talking before you start talking yourself. Of course, in person, if you say something after each sentence uttered by somebody else, you may be seen as someone who interrupts others all the time. Compare that to waiting until a person has finished saying different things before you offer your opinion. Which one would you prefer?

Imagine if everyone was comfortable with the idea of being interrupted with an immediate response from you after they finished saying each sentence, which one would you prefer then? What is your opinion on this?

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Racial discrimination

Theoretically on the web, there should not be any form of discrimination. In reality however, there is. We use the same racial terminology to describe people on the web that we do in person. On sites like MySpace and Facebook, I see many people sticking around and joining groups that promote their culture only by degrading other cultures. The potential of the web is being wasted in creating more separation than what the web is actually capable of: bringing everyone closer than never before. Similarly, we ask people about their ethnic race and background culture even when it comes to things like creating some e-mail account or joining certain blogging networks. We need to realize the situations where such information is beneficial to everyone, and we also need to realize the situations where such information is not relevant.

It is easy to get a chance to appreciate others online for what they do for themselves and for what they do for others. Even when we see pictures of millions of people on their own sites, we do not rush to conclusions based on their biological appearance. Instead, we associate the writing with the picture and that association creates a completely new perspective in our minds. Such interaction with others on the web will help us phase out any stereotypes we have related to different people online.

Gender discrimination

One of the other obvious forms of discrimination today is against females. In real life, many people get surprised when a female accomplishes great things in a male dominated world. We still get surprised and show anger at the very thought of a woman running a country, regardless of her political affiliation. Similary, in the corporate world we still throw tantrums in real life and online when a female runs a big corporation, creating extra fuss simply because of her gender. We have a way to get over this on the web but many choose not to.

The same way there are stereotypes against people of a specific gender in the world of shopping, stereotypical discrimination exists on the web also. Many people will still only link to sites of the same gender, because they “don’t trust” the opposite gender. I wonder if they follow this same rule when it comes to their parents, siblings and children? While everyone is entitled to their opinion, we have more chances to look at sites without wondering about the identification differences that the societies in the world have created. The online world allows everyone to have equal opportunities, regardless of their gender. Let us make use of these opportunities to at least remove discrimination from our own mentality.

Conclusion: The web allows us to progress against discrimination

While discrimination usually amounts to promoting a certain biological trait over another, sometimes promoting such traits effectively as a reactionary countermeasure helps people be aware of discrimination. Blogging sites focusing solely on a certain gender can be an example of this. While they all may be considered promoting a certain gender over the other, some of them actually take the right step when it comes to raising more awareness about something that has been suppressed for centuries: realization that everyone is equal regardless of their gender. Similarly, there are many sites which promote blogs by a certain country or a certain ethnic group. Joining these groups is fine as long as you do not put any other country or ethnic group below your own. You do not own rights to a certain group of people, and therefore you certainly not own rights to degrade any group of people.

I look forward to the day when people would feel comfortable doing things both in real life and on the web regardless of their gender or race. I also look forward to the day when different people will do different things together while still getting together with people of similar traits if they wish. I hope this is done in an effective manner so that everyone is treated equally, and that sticking close to people of different races and both genders makes us realize that we are all equal. One day people will hopefully tell each other “Back then they used to treat people of different races and gender differently.” I hope I see that day in my lifetime.

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I timed how long it took PeoplePC to disconnect me on random days, and noticed that it ranged from 3 to 4 hours for any local number I dialed into. It’s inconvenient to be disconnected like that, so I thought PeoplePC was disconnecting me because I wasn’t using their software. I downloaded their software to see if I was being disconnected simply because of that reason. Their software was simply a dialer that dialed into PeoplePC and showed the PeoplePC member homepage after a connection was established. The software kept running in the taskbar while allowing users to access the internet. However, even when I had connected using their software, a very happy “disconnect warning” box popped up on the screen after about 3 hours, advising me that the internet connection would be dropped in 10 minutes, and I could reconnect again immediately if I wished. The box also told me that this was the limitation of their basic plan, and that I could get their advanced plan to avoid this forever.

Somehow, PeoplePC didn’t appear to be offering the “unlimited access” that it claimed to. I used to have AOL and other dialup ISP’s long time ago and they didn’t disconnect users even after being connected for 12 hours or so. Searching through the PeoplePC help pages, I found the following section which talks about being disconnected automatically:

The reference to broadband connections having service interruptions didn’t make sense, as those interruptions are accidental and rare, whereas PeoplePC had a different connection technology [dialup] and was disconnecting on purpose simply because majority of the users were online for no more than an hour. Also, it is not the very nature of electro-communication medium that the connection be temporary after every hour, contrary to what PeoplePC is trying to imply in the last sentence of the above quote. The point of the entire paragraph itself is nullified because when you use the PeoplePC software to connect to the internet, the pop-up box that tells the user about the connection being dropped in 10 minutes also tells the user that if they purchase a higher PeoplePC plan, they will not be subject to such an annoyance. Sorry, I meant “limitation.”

For many people, staying online means accessing different email accounts and services. Using a dialup as a connection, that sometimes takes more than an an hour. PeoplePC does not mention the fact about disconnection during the sign-up process, nor does it mention it in their terms of service or the contract agreement you agree to abide by. Thus, for many people, if not most, PeoplePC is not cheap unless you get their premium plan, and you won’t know about it unless you get disconnected all of a sudden. Or unless you read about it here just now or somewhere else online.

Thus, with or without the PeoplePC software, you’ll get disconnected from the internet after a while if you get their basic plan, even though PeoplePC claims they offer “unlimited access.” And even though PeoplePC states on their site that this disconnection is because of “the very nature of electro-communication medium“, their own PeoplePC software implies otherwise by telling users to pay more for a higher price in order to get a connection that will not be dropped after a while.

What do you think about this? Have you ever experienced something similar?

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Hmmm, magazines? There are all different types of magazines here on the table, so many of them. Parenting, world news, gardening, automobiles, entertainment, business, and even furniture. There is, however, no computer magazine. Nothing on internet. Nothing on technology. There is absolutely nothing here that even mentions the word “internet” or “technology” or “computer.” In fact, even the business magazine is a 2 year old magazine that talks only about flier miles and what to wear for a meeting. It’s just like every other hospital waiting room, where you will never ever find any computer magazine, or anything related to computers.

Maybe sick people are not support to read about computers or technology. Maybe you’ll get sick even more if you see a computer on a magazine. But stuff about fast cars, slow business, gardening gloves and having sex during pregnancy is going to cheer you up for sure. The people who design hospitals and waiting rooms know exactly what works best for their sick customers while they’re bored and waiting, don’t they?

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