Is It Really A Good Thing To Be Connected All The Time?
Posted 05-16-2016 at 11:12 AM by chrissichapman
I had a contractor at my home this morning, pricing out a small job. As we were talking, my cell phone rang, and I let it go to voicemail. A few minutes later, he sat down to make calculations so I used the opportunity to listen the message I received. It was an out of area agent, calling me with a referral. Since we were almost done, I texted back and let her know I was almost done on an appointment and would call her shortly. The next response I got was 30 minutes later, to let me know they had already found someone.
Our cell phones and mobile devices keep us "on" and easily accessible through texts, emails, social media, and yes...even phone calls, in a seemingly 24/7 world where "work" doesn't have an end time. It is not uncommon now to receive text messages and emails at odd hours of the night, or for people to have expectations that if you are awake your phone will be on and you will respond immediately. While having the ability to stay connected anywhere and almost anytime can make many things much easier for us, I believe they are actually restricting and make things more difficult than they have to be.
Before we had unlimited data plans with free texting, email, Facetime, and Snapchat, we went about our days balancing work and personal time, and although we could make and receive phone calls, it was generally still accepted that you may call someone and the person at the other end may not answer. You planned accordingly. You didn't wait until the last minute. If you had questions, you asked all of them at the same time. You respected that people had other matters of importance to attend to as well and might not have time to talk when you wanted to.
Gradually, the obtrusiveness of constant connection has become so commonplace it sadly seems to be the norm. If you don't answer the phone, you'll get a text. If you don't respond, you get another one a few minutes later asking, "Did you get my text?" It has become easier to pick up the phone to have a question answered than it is to sit down and read an email that was received that has all the information being sought within. I have been called repeatedly, texted, emailed, and called again 20 times in the span of 5 minutes because my email wasn't read. I've had a couple sassy clients text me "?????" every few minutes because I had not responded immediately. It becomes easier to ask and expect an immediate response than to take responsibility for keeping track of instructions and information.
There are people, who respond to the buzz of a phone like one of Pavlov's dogs. Ok, I may even be guilty of it myself. My ears perk up, but I have trained myself not to check every single time I hear it, unless I have a very good reason to be expecting a call or message that will benefit my client while on an appointment, or am expecting a call that I can't miss. There are also times I'm in the shower, at the doctor's office, at a meeting, etc. where it is not acceptable to answer the phone.
We all have to balance our time with the people in front of us, as well as the ones in the background, but cannot be expected to drop everything to take a call, respond to a text or an email message immediately at all times. I had the "if I had only called her right back this morning" thought after getting the agent's text, but in retrospect, did I want to work with someone who couldn't wait a half an hour? Probably not.
Chrissi Chapman Topoleski
Re/Max Real Estate Connections
Haymarket, VA
571-330-1750
Our cell phones and mobile devices keep us "on" and easily accessible through texts, emails, social media, and yes...even phone calls, in a seemingly 24/7 world where "work" doesn't have an end time. It is not uncommon now to receive text messages and emails at odd hours of the night, or for people to have expectations that if you are awake your phone will be on and you will respond immediately. While having the ability to stay connected anywhere and almost anytime can make many things much easier for us, I believe they are actually restricting and make things more difficult than they have to be.
Before we had unlimited data plans with free texting, email, Facetime, and Snapchat, we went about our days balancing work and personal time, and although we could make and receive phone calls, it was generally still accepted that you may call someone and the person at the other end may not answer. You planned accordingly. You didn't wait until the last minute. If you had questions, you asked all of them at the same time. You respected that people had other matters of importance to attend to as well and might not have time to talk when you wanted to.
Gradually, the obtrusiveness of constant connection has become so commonplace it sadly seems to be the norm. If you don't answer the phone, you'll get a text. If you don't respond, you get another one a few minutes later asking, "Did you get my text?" It has become easier to pick up the phone to have a question answered than it is to sit down and read an email that was received that has all the information being sought within. I have been called repeatedly, texted, emailed, and called again 20 times in the span of 5 minutes because my email wasn't read. I've had a couple sassy clients text me "?????" every few minutes because I had not responded immediately. It becomes easier to ask and expect an immediate response than to take responsibility for keeping track of instructions and information.
There are people, who respond to the buzz of a phone like one of Pavlov's dogs. Ok, I may even be guilty of it myself. My ears perk up, but I have trained myself not to check every single time I hear it, unless I have a very good reason to be expecting a call or message that will benefit my client while on an appointment, or am expecting a call that I can't miss. There are also times I'm in the shower, at the doctor's office, at a meeting, etc. where it is not acceptable to answer the phone.
We all have to balance our time with the people in front of us, as well as the ones in the background, but cannot be expected to drop everything to take a call, respond to a text or an email message immediately at all times. I had the "if I had only called her right back this morning" thought after getting the agent's text, but in retrospect, did I want to work with someone who couldn't wait a half an hour? Probably not.
Chrissi Chapman Topoleski
Re/Max Real Estate Connections
Haymarket, VA
571-330-1750
Total Comments 0
