Assignment # 9: Alert! You Have 13 Unread Conversations!

As if the ease of checking one’s mail is not simple enough, Google Mail (Gmail) now offers an even more technologically advanced tool known as Gmail Notifier. From the introduction of internet and email communication to present time, these devices have evolved to allow accessibility among users with few, and continually diminishing, constraints with regard to time and place. With the availability of computers and wireless networks, it requires very little effort to access mail online. Gmail Notifier, however, makes it even easier to do so, because it is designed to notify an individual of new mail immediately when it is received. At that point, a text box along with a noise alert pops up in the bottom right corner of the computer screen, which reveals who the message is from, the subject of the email, and the first few words within the email. This tool is easy and free to install in one’s computer and helps make communication through email even more efficient to the point of being almost synchronous. Although email is generally characterized as an asynchronous psychological space, Gmail Notifier eliminates time from the mail checking process so that if one chooses to do so, they can respond within seconds to a received email.

Although these affordances of Gmail Notifier are valued among its users, they can also lead to Problematic Internet Use (PIU). According to Caplan, PIU is characterized by maladaptive cognitions and behaviors involving internet use that leads to academic, professional and social consequences. Symptoms of problematic internet use include mood alterations, excessive use, withdrawal, and compulsive use. The efficiency of Gmail Notifier seems to be problematic because its leads to withdrawal from other activities and for those who receive many emails a day, the use can become excessive and even somewhat compulsive. For example, my boyfriend finds Gmail Notifier very advantageous because he is the president of his fraternity and therefore receives an average of 30 emails each day. This device helps notify him the moment he receives an email and helps avoid a messages to pile up. That being said, however, there are many downsides. For one thing, the constant alerts end up becoming an excessive distracter and therefore other priorities such as his work (and talking to me), end up being compromised. In some ways, using the notifier can even be viewed as compulsive because he tends to feel guilt if he sees a message and does not go to read it immediately.

I think that internet affordances, a factor described by Caplan that is linked to problematic internet use, applies to Gmail Notifier as well, because of its easy-to-use features. However, I feel that in this case, psychosocial health is not an important factor as it was in Caplan’s study. Instead, it seems as though the level of work and responsibility is linked to increased problematic internet use. The more demanding a person’s schedule is, the more likely it seems that they will use this tool, which seems to be more harmful than good.