Wednesday, June 22, 2016

A Brief Sociological Digression - Lamport's First Axiom of Email Addiction


I’ve noticed something odd lately about my addiction to email.  It seems that the frequency with which I check my inbox is inversely correlated to the amount of email I am receiving at any given time.  Thus, the less email I receive the more inclined I am to check my inbox and vice versa.  If so, then this suggests that email addiction (more generally) is a form of isolation anxiety – it is the lack of signal that heightens our concern about our social standing; and conversely it is the overabundance of signal that compels us to tune out.  

Wouldn't it really be ironic now if I end up being better-known for this email theorem than for one of my poems.     See, e.g., the Ode to Truth.

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