Digital Doorman

This idea owes gratitude to my friend Sarah who got me thinking along these lines. In the past people in society used to have all these filters around them. If you wanted to meet someone you would need letters of introduction from mutual acquaintances that could attest to your goodness. You would stop by someones house and drop your calling card. And if they wanted to see you either they would or they would make an appointment to do so.

Today we live in immediacy. Your phone rings and the caller innately feels like you should be there to pick it up. When people send you an email there is a sense that you have to get back to them as soon as it is possible. It is quite a struggle (for some of us) to escape this mindset. Some people impose limits on themselves, only checking email in the morning or evening, but some of us are just bombarded by the contact and need a step back.

Thus, digital doorman. I can't quite be sure how this service would instantiate itself, but the premise would be the acknowledgment and emphasis that you are beyond some sort of firewall, that you're insulated. (Grandcentral is an example of this- requiring people to give their names before you talk to them and letting you review your callers before answering.)

I know in some sense this insulation implies a sense of inequality. Like you're too important or too busy to talk to whoever shows up. But really I'm thinking of it more as a necessary insulation so you can have room to breathe, to interact on your own terms. Or at least a balance between your own and everyone elses.

I was honestly considering turning on an auto-responder saying something to the effect of I might take awhile to get back to you. And I have one prof whose every email comes with a footer declaring the need to write again if you don't receive a response due to shear volume of email received. These too methods really emphasizes the lack of a system for communicating this to your potential callers. I think increased clarity of the terms of response would give us a much better response rate. Less people dropped. And maybe a more realistic expectation on our fellow communicators.