Where Am I? I’m on Vacation, I Think.

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Where Am I? I’m on Vacation, I Think.

7/6/2005

By Terry Calhoun

OUR COLUMNIST PONDERS THE MEANING OF VACATION IN THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF PERSISTENT CONNECTIVITY.

Where am I? I’m on vacation, I think. Am I? Yes, I am on vacation!

My SCUP colleague, John Ferry, showed up at work one day last month with his head shaved for the summer. That’s not unexpected, we’ve hit the heat wave time of the year in Michigan and he’s heavily involved in outdoor athletic activities. But this was the first time we’d seen him without his hair and also with the Bluetooth-enabled wireless earpiece for his cell phone, a clunky-looking thing that sticks out over his right ear and blinks constantly.

Here it is, only 2005, and I work with someone who looks as much like a cyborg as did Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first Terminator movie. Every once in a while, now, I remember that he’s got that thing stuck on his ear and even though he’s “right there” across my desk, before I speak I have to ask myself: “Where is John right now.”

Yes, he’s right there. But he might be on the phone, too. I can’t always tell by looking. Years ago my office dialup shared the same phone line as our fax machine and I was required to put a little sign up by the machine whenever I went on line, so that other staff would not waste time trying to send a fax. Maybe he needs a little sign?

Where is my body? Where is my attention? Where am I having an impact on getting things done? Those are not all the same things any more. Nowadays the answer to: “Where am I right now?” is not always obvious. I could give you the GPS coordinates, and that’s one answer. Another is the one we used to play with in our minds as children: Planet Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, and so forth.

The first time I really noticed that I was with people who weren’t really there was a few years ago, before I had a cell phone, when I was in one of those chain-reaction fender-benders. You know, someone slams into someone else, who slams into someone else, etc. The lady behind me slammed me into the car in front of me. So, a police officer arrives and within moments the lady behind me is on the phone to her husband, the fellow in front of me is on the phone to his office, and the police officer is on the phone to headquarters.

I was standing there at the scene of the accident, wondering where was that connection to others that used to happen in these situations, and was I the only person there who was really there. It was quite disconcerting.

This week I’m on vacation. What that means is that I am relaxing around my house, only working 3-4 hours a day instead of 9-10. And I do find it frustrating to be relatively disconnected from the rest of the world. Well, I’m not disconnected, really, I just don’t have broadband.

I have to admit it, the fast pace of all our communications makes it difficult to actually remain disconnected for a week. How can you create an expectation among hundreds of widespread colleagues and acquaintances that you’re going to be unplugged from so many things for seven days? Many of my colleagues find that a bit tyrannical, and I do understand that view. But I do not want to be disconnected.