I recently had the pleasure of travelling from London to Brunel University. As I approached the cosmopolitan nirvana that is Uxbridge, I looked around my Tube carriage. There were five other passengers and every single one of them was either Blackberrying or iPhoning.
You know the look. Head bowed, brow creased, thumbs and fingers moving in a blur over a tiny keyboard, transmitting kilobytes to somewhere else. It doesn’t look like a happy experience. These people aren’t enjoying themselves. Nor are they really doing anything useful. It is a kind of electronic displacement activity. They should wear a badge, “I am very, very busy on my mobile device, because to be otherwise engaged would expose me to the challenge of just being at peace with my own psyche.”
Ok, it would need to be a big badge, but you get the point.
There are two confusions here.
First, the idea that nothing that might happen outside of the Blackberry/iPhone could possibly be more important than whatever is happening inside it. This is demonstrably untrue. The work doesn’t happen on a tiny electronic screen. The work happens when we have ideas, make connections, do something of value. And none of that happens on a mobile device.
Second, these people are confusing Connectivity with Productivity. It’s not the same thing; in fact, it’s the opposite. Connectivity means responding to whatever is latest and loudest in digital-world. Productivity is about stepping back from the Tyranny of Immediacy and doing “Big Rock” work - something that makes a difference. Again, that never happens on a mobile device.
So we all have to choose between being Connected and being Productive. You can do either, but you can’t do both. Even in Uxbridge.