Constantly Connected

Rebekah tweeted a quote about Rahm Emanuel yesterday that made me legitimately LOL. It’s from the book “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” by Jonathan Alter, pages 165-166:

[Rahm] didn’t appreciate it when he reached only voice mail or when someone failed to call back immediately. One day in early 2009 he left a message for George Miller: “This is your best fucking friend, your only fucking friend in the world. Are you ever going to call me back?” No hello or goodbye. It had been two hours at most since Rahm called the first time.

I will be the first person to admit that I am attached at the hip to my iPhone. Having 24/7 access to my email, Facebook, Twitter, texting, calling and the Internet in general? Whoever decided it was a good idea to let me get a smartphone obviously wasn’t thinking straight.

It drives me absolutely crazy whenever someone takes days, weeks or eons to reply to an email/call/text/voicemail/tweet/Facebook message/etc. It gets really bad if I know the person I’m trying to correspond with also has a smartphone, because I just don’t see the point in getting a smartphone unless you’re going to use the “smart” part of the phone. (Or even the “phone” part, if that person isn’t responding to my calls or texts!)

Usually, I’m pretty good with not getting too anxious or annoyed about waiting for people to get back in touch with me. It only really gets to me if it’s a timely thing and I have to hear back from so-and-so by a certain time. For example, if I am put in charge of planning a surprise birthday dinner, I need to know what time works for everyone and what everyone is contributing to the party. If people don’t tell me, I can’t plan the party, which leads to no party (surprise, surprise). Pretty easy math, if you ask me. However, most people don’t see it that way and pin the blame for the lack of party on me. Or, they get me the necessary party planning details in the eleventh hour and have the audacity to grumble about me bothering them for said details. (Let’s remember that I wouldn’t have had to ask more than once if they replied to me the first time!)

While I wouldn’t say I’m as bad as Emanuel, I very well could be in the next few years. I already have a smartphone and my degree is best suited for PR and media… I may as well start drafting a marriage contract between myself and an iPhone or Blackberry (or Android, since they seem to be the next up-and-coming smartphone).

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.