I do have an account at the Kent State University library, although so far I have not saved any searches or subscribed to any feeds. That's because I haven't yet found anything that I want to have coming to my inbox regularly. As many of us know, managing one's inbox can be very challenging - and I'm not just talking about spam. I can quickly deal with Isidro and her request for money to help her bury her father in the Amazon, because my spam folder usually blocks her fake request, or I simply see the title and delete the e-mail without reading it. It's the volume of advertisements, notifications of news, Facebook alerts, and other information that I chose to receive (my environmental scanning) that builds up to an overwhelming level.
But, when I do need a certain service, product, or bit of information, it's so handy to have it right there in my inbox instead of having to go out and find it. And, as much of it is time-sensitive, I might miss an important deadline if I didn't have it set up to automatically alert me.
Currently I am signed up for e-mail ads from several retailers that I patronize (and am looking for cheap school supplies, like the rest of the U.S.); Reuters news digest (both the top stories and the oddly enough features); several different personal blogs; notifications from pinterest boards that I am following, ones that show items for my home business or our annual Christmas charity; a few job search engines; two or three yahoo support groups that help me cope with my own personal challenges; and several airline sites (because we travel so much). Oh, and not to forget my trusty old friend, Marriott - the only travel points system that actually works.
This doesn't include twitter or RSS feeds, which go to separate areas on my computer - not directly to my e-mail.
It's great to have these automated notification features, but you do have to get good at swooshing through them with your finger poised over the delete button, or soon you have an overflowing inbox. This creates a little more chaos than I can deal with.
Just yesterday I purchased tickets to go see my son, because Southwest is having a fare sale that fit into our budget. I wouldn't have known about the sale unless I had my environmental scanner going, sending notifications to my inbox.
The one I have the most trouble with, and yet was the most valuable, is the U.S. State Department's traveler's alert service. Having once registered with them concerning our whereabouts in Asia, I can't get them to take me off of their listserve. Two years after moving back to the U.S., they still think we live in India, and I still get the sporadic updates about terrorist activity and threats to U.S. citizens from that region. I can tell you right now that the latest rumor that terrorists were going to bomb the American International School in Chennai were labeled false by the U.S. Chennai Consulate. That's a piece of information which is no longer relevant to my life, and that is why i hesitate to sign up for any more State Department alerts. Apparently once you are on them, it's permanent. Still, while we lived in India, their updates and alerts were extremely valuable. So I highly recommend that if you are going to travel extensively, you use their traveler registration feature, which allows them to find you in an emergency, and allows you to get accurate updates about problematic situations.
Teresa
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