Thanks in part so smart phones that integrate voice, text, and now instant messaging services, the notion of having unbroken concentration during any task is completely antiquated. The fact that very few people turn off their phones at night is at the very least an small indication of society's active connectivity.
When "smart phones" started gaining momentum I remember starring in awe at the level of apparent rudeness of people engaged in face to face conversation, with eyes glued to their blackberry screens offering a limited level of attention to the person that was standing right there in front of them. What made the person on the other end of that phone more appealing than the one standing before them? I continued to judge these philistines until the day I purchased my first blackberry and suddenly everything changed. I became the "talk and texter" despised by non smart phone uses, and sympathized by fellow addicts.
It's difficult to say what this shift in attention means in our culture, why we seem to prefer negotiating reality through that 3 inch lens, but the ramifications for societal shifts are apparent. Perhaps the fact that we're able to control the content of our personalities and write our own press releases when conversation isn't conducted face to face, but this new trend certainly sparks controversy over the classic definitions friendship, intimacy, and human contact.
