In-Boxes January 15, 2013
Posted by indigobunting in Uncategorized.trackback
A couple of decades ago, an in-box, to me, was simply that tray on my desk at work, or perhaps the box in which I picked up my interoffice mail. Now, technology and the general busyness of life can turn almost anything into an in-box.
There are the obvious in-boxes: regular mail and e-mail. Facebook has become its own kind of in-box, between messages I receive that way and the general keepingupness of the thing. Blogs, too, need to be regularly checked. Now that I’ve finally joined the twenty-first century and gotten myself an iPhone, there are messages there too, both phone and text. I have an answering machine on my landline; I need to watch for its flashing light.
I don’t watch TV in real time very often, so my backlog of taped shows feels like another kind of in-box; the Netflix queue adds to that feeling.
Against my better judgment, but to support Special Olympics, I’m subscribing to Rolling Stone again, which I can’t keep up with but try to read when I go to the gym. I am always issues behind. (I am someone who compulsively reads almost every word, so I generally avoid magazine subscriptions.) I have a couple of gift subscriptions as a result of Christmas. I should feel grateful, but actually, I’m panicked.
My book queue also feels like a towering in-box, with approximately thirty books sitting there waiting to be next up. Please, no one send me books for awhile. Book group, understand if I need to abandon you.
The house itself feels like its own in-box, with its never-ending tasks and, as recently noted, not enough out-boxing.
This reminds me of the very first (and last) Portlandia episode I ever watched. I feel your pain – reading this actually stressed me out a little more than I already was. And I wonder why I can’t remember anything. Clearly, there are too many things taking up my brain capacity. Let’s sit around sometime and not remember anything together. That will ease the pain a bit, I’m sure. 🙂
Let’s do that SOON!
Sometimes I will go to google reader and check the box “mark all as read” because there is too much. And I, too, gave up on magazines for the same reason. I found myself reading the Atlantic Monthly or Mother Jones or even Time Magazine cover to cover compulsively. And they piled up. I had to let it go.
Yes, yes and yes! I only have a subscription to one magazine (Cuisine.co.nz), and I’ve always read that faithfully. But lately, I’ve started to slip … just a bit.
I’m both impressed and a bit envious you’ve got an iPhone. I haven’t succumbed to the smartphone yet – but my almost 7 year old Motorola will be traded in this year. One of the reasons I am resisting doing so is the fact that my email will be able to follow me about, nagging at me. I don’t like that idea.
Oh yes, and the blogs. I have subscribed to Bloglovin’. It’s a bit like Google reader, but I get one email a day showing which blogs have updated, and I can decide there and then which I want to read, and which I just have to keep for another time. I find it easier to manage my blog reading that way.
Books come a very sad bottom of the list most times. And I’m not happy about that.
And they thought that technology would make life easier, huh?
So far I don’t allow my phone to alert me to e-mail. I have to decide I need to check it.
Having palpitations now. Must check in-boxes. Great post, though.
Ha ha, this is a great post. Can I send it to people who ask me why I’m not on Facebook?
Of course! (says the woman who still kinda wishes you were on Facebook)