The Hindu Business Line : Tame taildogging and combat the EMV

Gemmelsmerch, screensucking, gigaguilt... These are among the new words Edward M. Hallowell has coined `to describe some of the strangeness of modern life'. Screensucking is `wasting time engaging with any screen,' he defines in CrazyBusy (www.landmarkonthenet.com) .

"Held by a mysterious force, a person can sit long after the work has been done or the show he wanted to watch is over, absently glommed on to the screen, not especially enjoying what he is doing but not able to disconnect and turn off the machine," reads a scary description of `a kind of modern addiction' to computer, video game, TV and BlackBerry screens!

Another `new' from Hallowell is EMV or e-mail voice. Not the synthesised voice you get to hear from answering machines, but `the unearthly tone a person's voice takes on when he is reading e-mail while talking to you on the telephone'. Remedy: You can tell the person at the other end of the phone to stop reading e-mail, or start reading e-mail yourself, advises the author. Believe it or not, the book cites media reports of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about `software for cell phones that would analyse speech patterns and voice tones to rate people {ndash} on a scale of 0 to 100 per cent {ndash} on how engaged they are in a conversation'.

Gigaguilt is what we live with all day long {ndash} the guilt over missing something or disappointing someone. It is unreasonable to expect the impossible of yourself, chides the author. But, alas, "like so many painful emotions, gigaguilt does not respond well to reason." Instead, it can lead you to become `depressed, frazzled, impatient, resentful, and ineffective.'

So, what is the remedy? "Set limits on what you commit to," counsels Hallowell. "Reserve time for what matters most to you... "

Tailgating, you know, means driving too closely behind another vehicle, following an authorised person through a secured door, and so on. What is taildogging? "Allowing the tail to wag the dog," explains the author. For example, you go faster, or push harder, `simply because other people are doing so', out of fear that you will be left behind `in life's great race'. And gemmelsmerch, which we'd started with, is `a complicated-sounding, sticky word' to describe a force that can distract the mind or steal it away from what it wants to do. Examples of high gemmelsmerch are `a jackhammer outside your window', or a missive from the taxman that you would be audited! "Reducing gemmelsmerch in your environment and learning how to resist its pull are modern survival skills of the highest importance."

A book you should be really crazy to be too busy to read.

SayCheek@TheHindu.co.in