Monday, January 08, 2007

Short Burst of Text

I just read a recent article by the brilliant Gerry McGovern in which he praises the rise of content in the last 15 years. In short, the content creator revolution of blogs and social networking. However, in it he also acknowledges how mobile tools like Blackberries have changed the way our bosses communicate with us. "Short bursts of text is the new management style." he says.

This couldn't be more true. My boss (actually my boss's boss) communicates almost exclusively in short bursts of text from his Blackberry. This has led to a great deal of confusion. For instance, when presented with several possible options he may simply respond, "Yes, go with it." Now I need to respond back with "Go with which one?" To which he may respond, "Send again--short form." Meaning he doesn't want to have to read any extra "stuff", just the options.

E-mail and mobile communication can certainly make it possible for us to be "always on," but are we listening or just trying to keep up with all of it?

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