Death By Email
It is indisputable that email has made our lives easier.
It has changed the world by bringing people closer, making communication faster than ever before, and allowing us to accomplish tasks at a speed that just three decades ago would have seemed beyond crazy. It is not possible to imagine living without email.
Is it a good thing? Yes, definitely.
But, as they say, "you can have too much of a good thing."
Email is one of those things, just like most social media platforms.
By making emailing effortless, the barrier to sending a message was reduced to nothing. What used to take hours - the process of thinking about what and how to say what we want to convey, writing it, going to the post office, stamping, and sending the letter - now takes literally seconds: we just type, click send, and it's done. Simple, easy, and convenient.
However, there is a dark side to this simplicity: the number of emails anyone receives on any given day. Everyone does it. Everyone sends and receives emails every single day. It has become the staple "official" means of communication.
And there is a not-so-hidden cost to it.
Each email triggers a cascade of decisions that must be made. As soon as we see the notification or notice the red mark, we make the decision whether to read it at that moment or later. Note that when this happens, we have already interrupted what we were doing. If we decide to read it immediately, then we need to determine if we should reply right away or if it can be postponed to a later time, forwarded to someone, or deleted. If we choose to reply but "not now," then it goes to our to-be-replied bundle that we call the "inbox." And we go back to what we were doing, only to start all over again the next time an email comes in or - God forbid - when we visit the inbox.
There are two fundamental issues with this cycle: decision fatigue and task-switching.
Every decision requires brain power.
Regardless of whether it's significant and life-changing or small and irrelevant, we use the same tools and resources: neurotransmitters, hormones, and ATP - our body's energy. The more we spend, the less we have. As Dr. Roy Baumeister states in his book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, "Making decisions uses the very same willpower that you use to say no to doughnuts, drugs, or illicit sex."
There is a reason why people like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg wear the same outfit every day: they save their brain power for when and where it truly matters.
The metabolic burden of decision-making leads to "Decision Fatigue," the "deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making”.
The impact is significant:
reduced ability to make good choices and decisions;
decision avoidance;
brain energy imbalance;
mood imbalance.
The brain ends up being "drained."
All the decisions a single email triggers add to this fatigue.
Can you imagine the compounding effect of dozens and hundreds of emails?
And then we have all the task switching that occurs when a new email (or text or notification) arrives in the inbox. There is an urge to open it, to look into the message it contains. It is designed to have that effect, fueling the so-called “fear of missing out” (FOMO) we share. We stop what we are doing to check it. This constant interruption has been shown to negatively impact creativity, complex thinking, executive function, and productivity. As it also requires brain power, it further depletes our resources.
At the end of the day, email can lead to burnout.
The convenience of emailing takes a toll on our bodies, brains, and minds, with a significant impact on our society. We can indeed have too much of it.
We can experience "Death By Email”.
18/08/2023
Posted originally - 29/03/2021 (https://www.cristinasales.pt/blog)