Online Too Often

I once heard a tech guru say, “Computers save time like kudzu stops erosion.” Using a computer makes you more effective, but it can get a wee bit out of control.

As much as I love e-mail and other technologies, I resent the ways that they insinuate themselves into my personal time. About a year ago I completely stopped answering my campus e-mail over holidays and weekends (apart from messages from my president/provost) because I was spending too much time dealing with work that really could have waited until the work week. It was seductive to feel so productive, but it was wearing me out.

“Work creep” is really bad in online teaching environments. I’ve always heard that online teaching is supposed to be a timesaver, but my family and friends whose jobs are 100 percent online seem to work every single day of the week. In an academic environment, it is easy to forget that the life of the mind demands that we take time away from work to think. The time demands of online teaching have a tendency to undermine that kind of activity and, I suspect, also have a negative effect on research productivity.

How can we circumscribe the tyranny of technology and its effects on our personal and professional lives?