A few things that they did that I think are just plain silly.
- Email notification on our mobile phones which is a "ring ring" like a bike bell whenever a mail arrives.
- Email popup window on our PC's and a tone when an email comes in (some call it toast).
- Keypress tones when you're sending a text, entering your pincode, or whenever a button is pressed.
All day I hear "ring ring", "dinnnnng", when mails come in, and blip blip blop when people text or use their phones.
Fortunately those setting were not locked and so I stopped all mine and sent an email around letting other people know how to do it.
Yes, it was a little bit amusing hearing the whole office going "ring ring" dinnng dinnng as my mail went to everyone.
Most people turned it all off but some haven't and it's very distracting.
Do people really hear the "ring ring" and check their phone every time? Almost everyone at work complains about too many emails and then they jump on board and make it worse.
On the "toast", I wonder how people avoid being distracted when they're working on something important, you'd think, and a little box pops up with a "blip" saying "oooh goodie, you've got another email" a few times every minute.
Sometimes I think it's a battle of who can "reply all" the quickest to a mail with potential glory points for being the quickest. Then another "reply all" from someone else, followed by a few more. Some of them have replied at the same time and said the same thing, or something different, which the first person feels the need to "reply all" again and explain it. What they're really doing is wasting everyones time, including theirs and creating the problem they complain about - too many emails.
It's not uncommon to have 10 emails with the same title and three or so different threads. Crazy.
I smile a bit when someone is sharing their screen on a webex or doing a presentation and their "toast" comes up. The little box has the sender, title, and the first few words. How risky is that? As well as yet another distraction. I smile even more when everyone pauses and reads it before it fades away.
And when there aren't enough ways to distract me already.. lets introduce instant messaging on my PC. "Bing" Hey mate you didn't respond to my email.
.."you're a distracting dickhead" send... Oh, I hope they're not doing a presentation..
A quick Update on my "unfriending"
Now I think they closed their account and didn't "superblock" me. A mutual friend messaged me back to say they're going well which was good. I shouldn't have thought the worst, but I did. Now I'm very relieved about that. They probably just needed a break from Facebook, which I understand. Facebook can easily dominate your life. I know I check mine too often, and even at work which I tell myself I won't; and didn't for a long time.
