email

Social networking site angers users…

September 2, 2007 By Dan Thornton

It seems like Twitter and the blogosphere is full of complaints about new social networking site Quechup. Just look at a quick Google search.

Lots of sites now offer to search your online and offline email and IM clients for people you know who might be using the same service. And most will then let you select who you might wish to invite.

But it seems Quechup indiscriminately emails everyone from any address book you list.

Bad, bad Quechup.

It’s stopped me signing up to find out if they’re doing anything different, especially as the homepage suggests not. Without a compelling reason to risk spamming all my friends, I’ll let everyone else try it out!

Information overload…

August 28, 2007 By Dan Thornton

Stress is one of the big factors in working and living in the 21st century.

So why have we started using the internet to increase our stress, rather than using it to make life easier?

I took a day off from the internet last week. It was a conscious decision to take a break and rest, and I ended the day feeling reinvigorated, and with some interesting ideas and topics to discuss here.

So why has it taken five days since then to post on the blog?

Net Stress.

Obviously before I could do anything I needed to check Facebook and my email for new messages. Then I needed to update Twitter. And catch up on the popular blogs via RSS. And then I remembered I’d started a Shelfari profile and hadn’t filled it in. And then there were more Facebook messages. And some people IM’d me on MSN. And then there were more emails.

And just the same as taking a holiday from the day job, spending 24 hours away from the next has left me more stressed than before I took a rest. And it’s all self-inflicted.

Should I be worried about internet addiction?

Finding the work/life/web balance…

March 9, 2007 By Dan Thornton

I’ve written in the past about internet schizophrenia resulting from signing up to too many sites.

But recently I’ve suffered the same problem from committing to too many projects, and a compulsion to be online, contactable, and working on all of them.

Recently I’ve worked on:
The relaunch of motorcyclenews.com.
The relaunch of disposablemedia.co.uk.
Becoming Editor of the Dipsosable Media PDF magazine (Issue 6 out now!)
Freelance writing for Strategy Informer.
Freelance writing for Gamestyle.
Freelance writing for Eurogamer.
Blogging here.
Blogging at BadgerGravling
Blogging at Updated Sayings

*phew*….I think that’s the lot. Oh, and there are plenty of things going on in my personal life, including one of the biggest and most stressful things people can ever experience (It involves putting things into cardboard boxes, then unpacking them again somewhere else)

So I’ve had to take some time to evaluate which of these gives the most pleasure, the most reward, and the most benefits to either myself or my career. It’s something I don’t do enough, because I want to get involved everywhere and do everything.

Step one is to file emails as soon as they arrive, and be honest to myself about which ones I’m never going to use/reply to.

Step two is to clear out bookmarks and particularly RSS feeds for sites I never read or use. I’m paranoid that one day someone will be discover the secret of wealth, happiness and eternal life and I’ll miss it, but if it’s truly an important story, it’ll end up on one of my other RSS feeds anyway.

So, anyone got any tech tips for step three in making me less stressed, and more organised?