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The other night I did something silly. In a hurry to reach my friend K, I made the mistake of calling him on his mobile phone. “You should have 2)texted,” he 3)chided me the next morning, when he finally heard the voice mail I’d left. “You know that’s the fastest way.” It’s hard to 4)keep track. Because my friend A, who frequently sends text messages, somehow fails to recognize that she might receive them as well and almost never checks. With her, I’m supposed to call. But not with my friend D. Between his two mobile phones, two office phones and one home phone, you can never know which number to try, and he seems never to pick up anyway. E-mail is his preference. He has three e-mail addresses, at least that I know about, but I’ve figured out the best one. I think.
You hear so much about how instantly reachable we all are, how 5)hyper-connected, with our 6)smartphones, laptops, 7)tablets and such. But the 8)maddening truth is that we’ve become so accessible we’re often inaccessible, the process of getting to any of us has become more tortured and 9)tortuous than ever. There are up to a dozen 10)possible routes and the direct one versus the 11)scenic one versus the 12)loop-de-loop versus the 13)dead end changes from person to person. If you’re not dealing with your closest business associates or friends, whose territory and 14)tics you’ve presumably learned, you’re lost.
There are some people 15)partial to direct messages on Twitter and others 16)oblivious to that corner of the Twitterverse. There are some who look at Facebook messages before anything else, and others don’t. I know only a handful of people with just one e-mail address, but I know many with three or more, and not all of these people understand automatic forwarding. My friend M 17)was recently reacquainted with an in-box 18)unattended for a year. It was stuffed with hundreds of unread messages—some, remarkably, from people 19)flummoxed by her 20)aloofness.
During a 21)cyberbinge a few years back, I set up three new, uncoordinated e-mail accounts, though I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe I had some vague notion that I’d be a subtly different person with a subtly different life on each. In fact, I remained the same person with the same life on the same two e-mail accounts I was already using, and that person couldn’t remember the passwords or user names for the additional ones. My 22)debit-card 23)P.I.N. is challenge enough. Recently, I missed an interview because I was 20 minutes late and the 24)subject assumed I was a 25)no-show. I’d been texting her about my delay because we’d communicated that way before. But it turns out that she has two mobile phones, and was monitoring the one whose number I didn’t know. Meanwhile, she was sending me e-mails, but it didn’t occur to me to look for those.
Communication can become a multistep, multiplatform process. My friend J and I like to talk on the phone, but only after she has sent me a Gmail to propose a 26)gchat, during which we determine if a call is actually 27)warranted and whether I should use her home, mobile, main office or 28)satellite office number. By the time voice meets voice, we’re 29)spent. There’s a lot of heavy breathing; none of it the fun kind.
To her 30)egalitarian credit, she gives out all of her contact information freely. Others use theirs to create 31)castes of acquaintances: those with only an 32)outer layer of business coordinates; those with “private e-mail” penetration; and those with the 33)vaunted home phone. I’m no longer sure why I have a home phone, whose voice mail I neglect. A message from my friend L 34)languished there for two weeks. She really should have e-mailed.
Newly 35)minted relationships come with operating instructions. “Try his cell phone first, then shoot him an e-mail,” says a 36)bigwig’s assistant. “Or circle back to me. Here’s my cell, and my e-mail, and...” Contact information is now contact 37)exegesis. And contact itself is subject to infinite 38)vagaries. An e-mail can go to 39)spam. A call can bump up against a voice mailbox not taking new messages. Its owner, managing too many mailboxes, has let it fill.
My friend E just texted, two days after my text. “Didn’t see it,” she reports. “On this new phone, I can’t figure anything out.” In this new world, neither can I.
那天晚上，我做了一件愚蠢的事情。为了能联系上朋友K，我在匆忙中拨打了他的电话号码，殊不知犯下了错误。“你应该发短信给我，”第二天早上，他终于听到了我的语音留言，这样责备我，“你知道，发短信是最快的方式。”
各人好恶还真难记得住。因为我的朋友A经常发短信，却不知怎么地总是忘记自己也可能会收到短信，于是几乎从来不查看短信。找她的时候，我应该打电话。但朋友D却不是这样。他有两部手机、两台办公室座机，还有家里的固话，这一堆号码里你都不知道该打哪一个，而他也似乎从来都不会接听电话。他更偏向使用电子邮件。据我所知，他至少有三个电子邮箱地址，但我已经找出了最管用的那一个。我是这么认为的。
耳畔经常响起这样的话：现在大家要获得即时联系是多么地容易，凭借智能手机、手提电脑、平板电脑等设备，我们简直进入了超级互联的时代。但是，事实却令人抓狂——我们变得如此容易获得联系的同时，常常难以联系上彼此，取得联系的过程变得比以往更加折磨人、更加曲折。途径可能会有十几个，其中有的直接，有的颇具戏剧性，有的盘旋曲折，还有的是死胡同，因人而异。如果你不是与你最紧密的生意伙伴或者朋友打交道（你对这些人的活动领域和终端控制系统已有大概的了解），那么你就会“迷路”。
有些人喜欢在推特上发私信，有些人则不太留意推特空间。有些人会先看脸谱网的信息再做其他事情，而有些人则不是。我知道少许人只有一个邮箱地址，但是我知道许多人有三个或以上的邮箱地址，但他们并不全都知道自动转发这个功能。我的朋友M最近才重新查看一个一年没有打开过的收件箱。里面有几百封未读邮件——其中一些，很明显地，是发自那些对她的冷漠感到很困惑的人。
在几年前的网络热潮中，我创建了三个全新的、无关联的电子邮箱帐号，虽然我不太确定为什么要这么做。或者我曾经有过奇妙的想法，认为用不同的电邮帐号便能拥有不同的生活，自己也会随之微妙变身。事实上，我只是保留了当时已经在用的两个电邮帐户，过的还是同一种生活，依然是同一个人。而这个人已经记不起除此以外的电子邮箱密码或者用户名。对我而言，光是记借记卡的密码就已经够难了。
最近，我因为迟到了20分钟而错过一个采访，对方以为我爽约，所以没等我。我一直发短信告诉她我会迟到，因为我们之前一直以这种方式沟通。但是事实上，她有两部手机，那时她只留意着那部我不知道号码的手机。期间，她给我发了邮件，但是我没想起要去查看邮件。
沟通可以变成一个多步骤、多平台的过程。朋友J和我喜欢通过电话交谈，但是此前她会先发一封邮件到我的谷歌邮箱向我发起在线聊天邀请，在网上聊天的过程中我们会决定是否需要打电话，以及决定我应该拨打她的家庭电话、手机、总公司还是分公司电话。等到彼此听到对方的声音时，我们都筋疲力尽了。交谈时大家都喘着粗气；过程毫无乐趣可言。
基于她平等主义的信誉，她慷慨地提供了她的所有联系方式。其他人则利用他们的联系方式来给熟人划分等级：那些仅仅有业务来往的泛泛之交；那些有“私人邮箱”的稍微深交的人，以及那些知道你家庭电话的人。我不再确定为什么自己的家里还要有固话，我经常忽略家庭电话的语音留言。朋友L的一则信息在那被冷落了整整两个星期。她真的应该发邮件给我。
对于刚刚建立起来的关系，还有操作说明。“先打他的手机，然后发封邮件给他，”一位名人的助手这么说，“或者回头找我。这是我的手机，我的邮箱和……”联系方式现在变成了沟通前必要的注释。而且沟通本身也变数重重。邮件可能会变成垃圾邮件。电话可能会遇到一个再也不会接收新信息的语音信箱。它的主人有着太多邮箱，便任由它堆满。
朋友E在我的短信发出两天后回信息了。“没看到你的短信，”她回复说，“用着新手机，什么都还没弄明白。”在这样的一个新世界里，我也什么都弄不明白。
You hear so much about how instantly reachable we all are, how 5)hyper-connected, with our 6)smartphones, laptops, 7)tablets and such. But the 8)maddening truth is that we’ve become so accessible we’re often inaccessible, the process of getting to any of us has become more tortured and 9)tortuous than ever. There are up to a dozen 10)possible routes and the direct one versus the 11)scenic one versus the 12)loop-de-loop versus the 13)dead end changes from person to person. If you’re not dealing with your closest business associates or friends, whose territory and 14)tics you’ve presumably learned, you’re lost.
There are some people 15)partial to direct messages on Twitter and others 16)oblivious to that corner of the Twitterverse. There are some who look at Facebook messages before anything else, and others don’t. I know only a handful of people with just one e-mail address, but I know many with three or more, and not all of these people understand automatic forwarding. My friend M 17)was recently reacquainted with an in-box 18)unattended for a year. It was stuffed with hundreds of unread messages—some, remarkably, from people 19)flummoxed by her 20)aloofness.
During a 21)cyberbinge a few years back, I set up three new, uncoordinated e-mail accounts, though I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe I had some vague notion that I’d be a subtly different person with a subtly different life on each. In fact, I remained the same person with the same life on the same two e-mail accounts I was already using, and that person couldn’t remember the passwords or user names for the additional ones. My 22)debit-card 23)P.I.N. is challenge enough. Recently, I missed an interview because I was 20 minutes late and the 24)subject assumed I was a 25)no-show. I’d been texting her about my delay because we’d communicated that way before. But it turns out that she has two mobile phones, and was monitoring the one whose number I didn’t know. Meanwhile, she was sending me e-mails, but it didn’t occur to me to look for those.
Communication can become a multistep, multiplatform process. My friend J and I like to talk on the phone, but only after she has sent me a Gmail to propose a 26)gchat, during which we determine if a call is actually 27)warranted and whether I should use her home, mobile, main office or 28)satellite office number. By the time voice meets voice, we’re 29)spent. There’s a lot of heavy breathing; none of it the fun kind.
To her 30)egalitarian credit, she gives out all of her contact information freely. Others use theirs to create 31)castes of acquaintances: those with only an 32)outer layer of business coordinates; those with “private e-mail” penetration; and those with the 33)vaunted home phone. I’m no longer sure why I have a home phone, whose voice mail I neglect. A message from my friend L 34)languished there for two weeks. She really should have e-mailed.
Newly 35)minted relationships come with operating instructions. “Try his cell phone first, then shoot him an e-mail,” says a 36)bigwig’s assistant. “Or circle back to me. Here’s my cell, and my e-mail, and...” Contact information is now contact 37)exegesis. And contact itself is subject to infinite 38)vagaries. An e-mail can go to 39)spam. A call can bump up against a voice mailbox not taking new messages. Its owner, managing too many mailboxes, has let it fill.
My friend E just texted, two days after my text. “Didn’t see it,” she reports. “On this new phone, I can’t figure anything out.” In this new world, neither can I.
那天晚上，我做了一件愚蠢的事情。为了能联系上朋友K，我在匆忙中拨打了他的电话号码，殊不知犯下了错误。“你应该发短信给我，”第二天早上，他终于听到了我的语音留言，这样责备我，“你知道，发短信是最快的方式。”
各人好恶还真难记得住。因为我的朋友A经常发短信，却不知怎么地总是忘记自己也可能会收到短信，于是几乎从来不查看短信。找她的时候，我应该打电话。但朋友D却不是这样。他有两部手机、两台办公室座机，还有家里的固话，这一堆号码里你都不知道该打哪一个，而他也似乎从来都不会接听电话。他更偏向使用电子邮件。据我所知，他至少有三个电子邮箱地址，但我已经找出了最管用的那一个。我是这么认为的。
耳畔经常响起这样的话：现在大家要获得即时联系是多么地容易，凭借智能手机、手提电脑、平板电脑等设备，我们简直进入了超级互联的时代。但是，事实却令人抓狂——我们变得如此容易获得联系的同时，常常难以联系上彼此，取得联系的过程变得比以往更加折磨人、更加曲折。途径可能会有十几个，其中有的直接，有的颇具戏剧性，有的盘旋曲折，还有的是死胡同，因人而异。如果你不是与你最紧密的生意伙伴或者朋友打交道（你对这些人的活动领域和终端控制系统已有大概的了解），那么你就会“迷路”。
有些人喜欢在推特上发私信，有些人则不太留意推特空间。有些人会先看脸谱网的信息再做其他事情，而有些人则不是。我知道少许人只有一个邮箱地址，但是我知道许多人有三个或以上的邮箱地址，但他们并不全都知道自动转发这个功能。我的朋友M最近才重新查看一个一年没有打开过的收件箱。里面有几百封未读邮件——其中一些，很明显地，是发自那些对她的冷漠感到很困惑的人。
在几年前的网络热潮中，我创建了三个全新的、无关联的电子邮箱帐号，虽然我不太确定为什么要这么做。或者我曾经有过奇妙的想法，认为用不同的电邮帐号便能拥有不同的生活，自己也会随之微妙变身。事实上，我只是保留了当时已经在用的两个电邮帐户，过的还是同一种生活，依然是同一个人。而这个人已经记不起除此以外的电子邮箱密码或者用户名。对我而言，光是记借记卡的密码就已经够难了。
最近，我因为迟到了20分钟而错过一个采访，对方以为我爽约，所以没等我。我一直发短信告诉她我会迟到，因为我们之前一直以这种方式沟通。但是事实上，她有两部手机，那时她只留意着那部我不知道号码的手机。期间，她给我发了邮件，但是我没想起要去查看邮件。
沟通可以变成一个多步骤、多平台的过程。朋友J和我喜欢通过电话交谈，但是此前她会先发一封邮件到我的谷歌邮箱向我发起在线聊天邀请，在网上聊天的过程中我们会决定是否需要打电话，以及决定我应该拨打她的家庭电话、手机、总公司还是分公司电话。等到彼此听到对方的声音时，我们都筋疲力尽了。交谈时大家都喘着粗气；过程毫无乐趣可言。
基于她平等主义的信誉，她慷慨地提供了她的所有联系方式。其他人则利用他们的联系方式来给熟人划分等级：那些仅仅有业务来往的泛泛之交；那些有“私人邮箱”的稍微深交的人，以及那些知道你家庭电话的人。我不再确定为什么自己的家里还要有固话，我经常忽略家庭电话的语音留言。朋友L的一则信息在那被冷落了整整两个星期。她真的应该发邮件给我。
对于刚刚建立起来的关系，还有操作说明。“先打他的手机，然后发封邮件给他，”一位名人的助手这么说，“或者回头找我。这是我的手机，我的邮箱和……”联系方式现在变成了沟通前必要的注释。而且沟通本身也变数重重。邮件可能会变成垃圾邮件。电话可能会遇到一个再也不会接收新信息的语音信箱。它的主人有着太多邮箱，便任由它堆满。
朋友E在我的短信发出两天后回信息了。“没看到你的短信，”她回复说，“用着新手机，什么都还没弄明白。”在这样的一个新世界里，我也什么都弄不明白。