E-mail on aircraft

From Our Correspondent: Give Me Time to Think
With e-mail on aircraft, one of the last refuges is about to disappear
By JEREMY HANSEN

So e-mail's heading skywards. Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines are bringing Internet connectivity to cruising height, allowing business-class passengers *****rf the web and - probably with some initial technical difficulty - check e-mail messages. I watch advertisements for the new services with dread. Economy class flying these days has few charms, but one of them is that back there in those cramped seats is one of the few places you can claim to be genuinely uncontactable. In-flight e-mail will take a long time to reach cattle class, it's true. But it will one day. It's distressing to contemplate the disappearance of the blissful isolation of long-haul flights.

Riding an airplane is a weird sort of solitude, because you're sharing a cramped space with hundreds of others. But there's something uniquely satisfying about stocking up on books and magazines at the airport store and knowing there are hours of free time ahead to read them. With an empty seat beside me to stash all the reading material, even a long flight can be a relaxing, mind-expanding journey.

This is an experience that's becoming impossible to replicate on the ground. The new range of 2.5G (the precursor to 3G, or third-generation) mobile phones and personal digital assistants is primed for release in many parts of Asia before the end of the year. They boast an always-on Internet connection that will mean e-mail is no longer something you missed because you weren't at your desk. It's already too late to turn back. Instant message companies such as Hong Kong-based Black Octopus already offer mobile e-mail through phone operators using SMS (Short Message System) technology.

Sure, I could just turn my phone off, or pretend not to hear the friendly tinkle that tells me an e-mail has arrived in my mailbox. But deliberately ignoring something and not being able to receive it are quite different things. There's no need to feel my pain: I'll probably find mobile e-mail terrifically convenient. After all, I once mocked those who carried around a cellphone. The next generation of mobile devices will probably come to feel equally indispensable. But the drive for always-on contactability is eroding the few deliciously empty spaces we have left in our lives. Businesses these days keep telling us they value creativity. Then why can't they leave us alone for a while to think?

As the e-mail invasion rages on, companies are making lavish investments to foster creativity. Offices are being redesigned to include bar and caf-style spaces, the idea being that staff can use them to come up with great ideas during chance meetings. Multinational engineering firm Arup has installed special isolation booths in its new Hong Kong premises so that workers can escape their cubicles to toil alone and fruitfully if they choose. Other companies spend small fortunes on cheesy team-building exercises in the hope that greater communication and innovation will result.

But creativity is an unpredictable beast. It can't be beckoned on command, even in those stolen moments when nobody knows where we are. But these empty spaces are a vital refresher. To dream up good ideas, the brain needs time to drift randomly skyward. The beep of an arriving e-mail drags it straight back to earth.




Được sửa chữa bởi - despi on 22/12/2001 07:24