Linda Stone, the technologist who once labeled the disease of the Internet age \u201ccontinuous partial attention\u201d \u2014 two people doing six things, devoting only partial attention to each one \u2014 remarked:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so accessible, we\u2019re inaccessible. We can\u2019t find the off switch on our devices or on ourselves. … We want to wear an iPod as much to listen to our own playlists as to block out the rest of the world and protect ourselves from all that noise. We are everywhere \u2014 except where we actually are physically.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thomas Friedman has more about this topc in his latest NYT op-ed piece which can be found after the jump.
\nNovember 1, 2006
\nOp-Ed Columnist
\nThe Taxi Driver
\nBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
\nParis
\nI arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport the other night and was met by a driver sent by a French friend. The driver was carrying a sign with my name on it, but as I approached him I noticed that he was talking to himself, very animatedly. As I got closer, I realized he had one of those Bluetooth wireless phones clipped to his ear and was deep in conversation. I pointed at myself as the person he was supposed to meet. He nodded and went on talking to whomever was on the other end of his phone.
\nWhen my luggage arrived, I grabbed it off the belt; he pointed toward the exit and I followed, as he kept talking on his phone. When we got into the car, I said, \u201cDo you know my hotel?\u201d He said, \u201cNo.\u201d I showed him the address, and he went back to talking on the phone.
\nAfter the car started to roll, I saw he had a movie playing on the screen in the dashboard \u2014 on the flat panel that usually displays the G.P.S. road map. I noticed this because between his talking on the phone and the movie, I could barely concentrate. I, alas, was in the back seat trying to finish a column on my laptop. When I wrote all that I could, I got out my iPod and listened to a Stevie Nicks album, while he went on talking, driving and watching the movie.
\nAfter I arrived at my hotel, I reflected on our trip: The driver and I had been together for an hour, and between the two of us we had been doing six different things. He was driving, talking on his phone and watching a video. I was riding, working on my laptop and listening to my iPod.
\nThere was only one thing we never did: Talk to each other.
\nIt\u2019s a pity. He was a young, French-speaking African, who probably had a lot to tell me. When I related all this to my friend Alain Frachon, an editor at Le Monde, he quipped: \u201cI guess the era of foreign correspondents quoting taxi drivers is over. The taxi driver is now too busy to give you a quote!\u201d
\nAlain is right. You know the old story, \u201cAs my Parisian taxi driver said to me about the French elections … \u201d Well, you can forget about reading columns starting that way anymore. My driver was too busy to say hello, let alone opine on politics.
\nI relate all this because it illustrates something I\u2019ve been feeling more and more lately \u2014 that technology is dividing us as much as uniting us. Yes, technology can make the far feel near. But it can also make the near feel very far. For all I know, my driver was talking to his parents in Africa. How wonderful! But that meant the two of us wouldn\u2019t talk at all. And we were sitting two feet from each other.
\nWhen I shared this story with Linda Stone, the technologist who once labeled the disease of the Internet age \u201ccontinuous partial attention\u201d \u2014 two people doing six things, devoting only partial attention to each one \u2014 she remarked: \u201cWe\u2019re so accessible, we\u2019re inaccessible. We can\u2019t find the off switch on our devices or on ourselves. … We want to wear an iPod as much to listen to our own playlists as to block out the rest of the world and protect ourselves from all that noise. We are everywhere \u2014 except where we actually are physically.\u201d
\nA month ago I was in San Francisco and went for a walk. I was standing at an intersection waiting to cross the street when a man jogging and wearing his iPod came up next to me. As soon as the light turned green he sprinted into the crosswalk. But a woman driving a car \u2014 running a yellow light \u2014 almost hit him before she hit the brakes. The woman was holding a cellphone in her right ear and driving with her left hand. I thought to myself, I\u2019ve just witnessed the first postmodern local news story, and I crafted the lead in my head: \u201cA woman driving her car while speaking on her cellphone ran over a man jogging across the street while listening to his iPod. See page 6.\u201d
\nHey, I love having lots of contacts and easy connectivity, but in an age when so many people you know \u2014 and even more you don\u2019t know \u2014 can contact you by e-mail or cellphone, I\u2019m finding this age of interruption overwhelming. I was much smarter when I could do only one thing at a time. I know I\u2019m not alone.
\nA few weeks ago I was trying to find my friend Yaron Ezrahi in Jerusalem. I kept calling his cellphone and getting no answer. I eventually found him at home. \u201cYaron, what\u2019s wrong with your cellphone?\u201d I asked.
\n\u201cIt was stolen a few months ago,\u201d he answered, adding that he decided not to replace it because its ringing was constantly breaking his concentration. \u201cSince then, the first thing I do every morning is thank the thief and wish him a long life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Linda Stone, the technologist who once labeled the disease of the Internet age \u201ccontinuous partial attention\u201d \u2014 two people doing six things, devoting only partial attention to each one \u2014 remarked: \u201cWe\u2019re so accessible, we\u2019re inaccessible. We can\u2019t find the off switch on our devices or on ourselves. … We want to wear an iPod […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[500,630,640],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-politics","tag-tech","tag-thomasfriedman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}