[iDC] silence, infomania

[Kath O'Donnell]

hi Kim, fwiw my thoughts below:

On 8/29/07, Kimberly De Vries <cuuixsilver at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I think this is a very interesting topic; I personally struggle to
> keep up with my email and sometimes I may take a week to reply if the
> incoming message wasn't urgent, because I get so many every day that
> are "time sensitive," and I can only spend an hour or two answering
> each day.  This causes me a certain amount of concern since I know I
> like to get replies quickly, but we are none of us perfect.

yes, this is similar to my pattern.  I'm on way too many lists to
actually read/reply in realtime - part of my email addiction I think.
I sort all the mails from different lists into folders (gmail labels)
and depending on which mood I'm in I'll read a few emails from a
particular list. this is usually around once a month or two for each
list in the lists I actually read. so for me, because I've delayed in
reading the emails I don't reply as the topic has moved on since then.
sometimes I'll follow a thread for a week, then I'll probably move to
another list/topic. I really think hyperlinking has changed the way I
read and my concentration span. I'd like to be able to stick to one
thing, but I seemed to be easily distracted, so each email has about
1-3 seconds to grab my attention. if the subject line doesn't have the
topic I'd probably miss reading the email, unless I noticed that the
thread went for a while, then I might read one in the middle of the
thread and then decide whether to go back to the start and read all or
skip to something else.

[snip]

>
> I'm curious to know if people are silent on email lists, or bulletin
> boards, etc, for similar reasons, or whether certain factors are more
> important in one context than another.  For example, is the strength
> of social ties a greater factor for individual exchanges, or a greater
> factor in a community discussion?
>

I find bulletin boards better for delayed replies. as it's easier to
bring the topic back into focus.
I used to not talk on the academic based lists as I'm not an academic.
but I'm getting over this now and will write occasionally. I think I
tend to write more on lists where I know the people in person.

there were a couple of lists I used to manage years ago and I had to
be/was more active and responsive. as the list owner/moderator, if I
didn't do this the list faded more quickly. it took up a lot of time
but was fun at the time.

kath





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