Out of Pocket.

What is the cost of constant connection?

I don’t know if you noticed, but for a few hours this week, Slack went down, and the world—at least for those of us tethered to it—fell strangely quiet. The little pings that punctuate our days disappeared. No new messages. No status updates. Just silence.

It was mildly unsettling (“What am I missing?”). And, telling.

We live in an era of always-on availability, where being reachable is a given, and instant response is the expectation. Work and life have bled together in a way that makes true separation feel like a luxury rather than a necessity. And yet, when the digital tether snapped this week, even temporarily, there was an opportunity to notice just how tightly we’re bound to it.

The issue isn’t just Slack. It’s the relentless stream of notifications that carve our attention into bite-sized, disconnected fragments—a concept aptly called “time confetti.” Every ping, buzz, and red dot splinters our focus, turning what could be a deep, immersive flow into a scattered, reactive existence. We move from one alert to the next, collecting digital crumbs of urgency while struggling to accomplish anything of real depth.

The irony? The very tools designed to help us collaborate can also keep us from doing meaningful work. The more available we are, the less present we become.

Slack’s momentary lapse was a reminder that connection, while valuable, comes at a cost. It was a glimpse of what it feels like to step outside the constant hum of expectation, if only for a little while. It begged the question: What would it look like to reclaim space from the noise? To be unreachable—on purpose?

We need more planned outages. More time to work deeply, think clearly, and exist without the pressure of being instantly responsive.

Slack came back, of course. The pings resumed. So did the noise.

But for a fleeting period of time, there was space—proof that the world keeps turning even when we step away. Maybe that silence wasn’t an absence but an invitation—one that we should accept more often.

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