By Sandra Laws, RN (Really Nuts)
We are currently in a technological revolution. In spite of all good intentions we are all going to suffer the consequences of technology. Gone are the days that you can truly take a day off. Your day off may consist of checking your email regularly through the internet, answering those emergency pages on your state of the art alpha pager or answering those annoying little beeps when picking up the phone (oh no, not another voice mail). It seems we are so caught up in the technology we don't realize the negative effects it is having on our mental health.
The man in the cartoon could be anyone in the world today. We are struggling to wear the right hat at all times. We need to be mother, father, lover, daughter, son, employee, friend and volunteer. Each of these roles requires us to respond differently at different times. The real change is that we no longer have a day or a week or a month to make a decision. When one of the significant folks in our lives makes a request, we are expected to respond immediately. We no longer have time as a buffer between the stimuli coming in and the response going out.
Time is running out. You no longer have the luxury of saying" I am sorry I missed your call." You have voicemail and more than likely your employer has figured out that they can configure your pager to let you know you have voicemail. You used to receive a letter and if you wrote back in a week you were doing good. Now even your family wants to know "why haven't you answered my email?" God forbid you should be sick or just taking a mental health day and just want to be left alone. No more time to think things through in this instant world. Hope I don't make any costly mistakes. I have decided that the human is very resilient and after we all spontaneously implode we will get back to basics.
Don't sweat the small stuff, life is too short!!!!!!
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