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Websphere - Nobody wants to know you until your known

Long work hours are also inefficient. Brecht says English research found that people can work at 100 per cent efficiency for 45 hours a week. The next 10 hours they worked, they fell to 50 per cent efficiency; for any hours after that, 25 per cent efficiency. He says workers who are always available on the mobile and who ring overseas at all hours of the day and night to check international markets "work hard, but not smart".

"People need time to process the bombardment of communication."

There is also the question of what electronic communication does to the quality of interactions; does it increase the likelihood of being in touch with everyone, but intimate with no one?
Psychologist Evelyn Field says, "It's not a good trend because it doesn't improve the quality of the friendship or relationship. It just becomes more 'busyness'. People can be very busy while not doing anything, and people can be communicating electronically and not getting closer, just doing it for the sake of it. It's almost as if it's a defence against anxiety."

She points out that electronic communication is limited because 90 per cent of human communication is non-verbal: "Body language is 55 per cent, 28 per cent is voice, and only 7 per cent is words." Shy teenagers who focus largely on computer communications "miss out on what you would feel, hear, smell, sense, pick up in your gut instinct. It's not good for the development of social skills."

In workplaces, adults are doing the same thing, Field suggests: "Get off the computer and walk next door and say, 'Look, I was a bit upset when you said that about my report, what did you mean by it?' instead of sending some flame email. I think we are losing that ability to confront, or to say, 'That was really nice, I appreciated it.' "

"Clare Lloyd, a PhD student"
She says the mobile phone is linked to their sense of agency in the world, their identity, and their social power and influence:
A quick emotional response happens that links clearly straight into their sense of identity."
If you hear it ringing, you've got to respond. For a start, it's because it's your ringtone; the home phone is for a number of people, but because your mobile phone number is not publicly available, you know they are trying to get you."