Directive #5
Work and on-line life
July 2023
Of your everyday activities, what do you define as “work”? In your mind, what differentiates “work” from other activities?
I see “work” as activities I am either compensated for, or other tasks I may not necessarily “want” to do in a given moment, yet do anyway because they make life better for myself or those around me, such as yardwork and home maintenance, preparation of meals, etcetera.
A traditional workday for me are traditional business hours; Monday-Friday, roughly from 8 am to 5 pm. That has been my reality, with occasional Saturday activities or weeknight meetings, for a dozen or so years. In my career, I have had stints of non-traditional hours, second shifts, and retail/customer service hours, which are nearly opposite the trad workday schedule.
My work has value for me because it allows me to make my community a better place for others to live, or at least attempt to do so; Ironically, I went into the business field because I saw it as an avenue to work a traditional workday/week inside an office, and it would be lucrative for myself and my family. I ultimately found parts of this path to be unsatisfying and occasionally stifling. Very corporate and bureaucratic. Now I am in a non-profit sector, charged with promoting and enabling healthier behavior and lifestyles. It also reflects my values as I need to serve all equitably, whether or not they believe, look, act or think as I do. I consider myself lucky that my employer offers this fulfilling role, yet pays me what I consider a fair transaction for my time and effort.
What roles does online activity play in your daily life?
I often emphasize to my children that I completed my entire formal education before we realized the commercial value of, or at least the mainstreaming of the Internet, and other online social media. I consider this a paradox because I think the Internet is the number one invention in my life and also potentially the most destructive had it been here sooner! I’m grateful that the juvenile and young-adult exploits of myself and friends are limited to our memory banks, and occasionally, chronicled with pen and now-yellowed notebook paper.
My “work,” as defined earlier, includes fairly consistent online research, reference and communication. E-mail is the preferred medium among colleagues and clients, and sometimes days will pass without a traditional phone call, although a hard-wired phone remains on my desk. Online content is my primary information source these days–though again, I was completely educated relying on card catalogs, the Dewey Decimal System and the World Book Encyclopedia.
I consider myself an outdoorsy, active person, so my “play” doesn’t include a lot of online activity, only serving as an enhancer to research a trail, new golf course, fishing report, pitching matchup or tip time.
As I hinted at earlier, my motivations for signing onto social media were mainly to keep contact with and track of old friends now more distant. Like many late adaptors, I find myself increasingly reliant on text and socialized media than the telephone and face-to-face.
That said, the online world is a constant source of “entertainment,” whether on social media platforms and apps, (No Twitter or “X” for me, thankfully) whether falling down the Internet rabbit hole when I should be doing real work, streaming a ballgame online while hunched over a bar, cataloguing and referencing said beers, and communicating and referencing news via Facebook. I will never use it as a primary news source, but the platform sometimes guides me to stories and content I may not have otherwise seen.
Social media interactions have become a hot button in the last decade (and especially the last couple of presidential adminstrations!). I’ve lost a few friends from online posts or statements, but never blocked or “unfriended” anyone, no matter how toxic I may find them to be. I would rather continue to know them as I did before, and have that stuff out in the open. I’ve joked that if I’ve “virtually” upset someone, I would have greater respect if they showed up at my door and punched me in the face than some kind of high-tech “silent treatment.” I don’t post much provocative content since the end of the last presidential administration, but will occasionally tell people reaching outto connect with me online (especially if they knew my family or me years ago) that my sense of humor isn’t for everyone, and they may have to just ignore some comments, as I’m just making observations and rarely trying to provoke. In short, I feel my time online is as valuable as I want it to be… it’s important to my being and function, yet -hopefully- does not control me.