The 2am email itch

Today morning, I was pleasantly surprised to read about the 2am blackberry itch on the Wall Street Journal's article about "BlackBerry Orphans". I had written about this earlier when I wrote about the midnight bulb.

The article talks about how the Blackberry is altering parenting dynamics in the modern world. It's true - the world is not the same anymore. (1) Baby Talk: My 2.5 year daughter can say "Backberi" and "bootuth", and I bet your kids can do likewise. (2) Father-Son teaching: My son beats me at brickbreaker by several levels. (3) Father-Son bonding: I've been at my son's basketball game, checking to see if there are urgent emails that deserve my attention right that instant. (4) Restroom breaks: And, of course, I sneak a peek into the blackberry during the 2am trip to the restroom. (Helpful tip - shake my hand, but don't ask to see my blackberry! ;-) ).

It's not me, its my monkey...There are a couple of interesting blogs to read if you're a fellow addict. Fellow blogger Itzy Sabo talks about managing emails, and life. Another cool blog, called Mind Hacks, talks about the addictive nature of email here and says that email is addictive because its a variable-interval reinforcement schedule. Didn't understand it? ;-) It just means that our monkey brains are wired to repeat an activity if there is a reward (banana, peanut) that does not come in a predictable frequency.

Breaking the Fix. Now that we have someone to blame for our blackberry/email addiction, we can get around to doing something about it. Flushing the Blackberry is one such idea mentioned in the WSJ, apart from a good 12-step-path-to-rehab. The Mindhacks blog mentions another set of things to try out.

Try yoga instead. I've noticed that I never get interesting emails when I'm doing the downward dog. In fact, I can officially certify that I don't get interesting emails anytime I'm doing yoga.

Hmmm...this could be contagious! Coming to think of it, I don't receive any interesting emails anytime between 5-9am, 9am-9pm, and between 9pm and 2am. It's only during the 2am visit that I get anything worth reading! That too, occasionally.