distracted again

I found the time last night -- not sure how -- to watch "Distracted" author Maggie Jackson being interviewed by a Business Week editor. She was terrific! I went back to the book, on my overloaded nightstand, and read it with new focus. Jackson offers some very important reflections on the nutty, fractured way most of us are living our lives, and particularly the way most of us relate to our friends. Our chronic split focus has become a cliche: the two dear friends meeting for lunch and talking to other people on their cellphones, or the teenager talking to two people at a time with a split screen and instant messaging. And as Jackson rightly points out, it is robbing us all of emotional nourishment. And we need to work to cultivate awareness to stop.
Earlier this year I made a pledge: with the exceptions of my siblings and a few longtime friends I adore who all live far away, I'm not conducting my emotional life by email. I figure if I have time to message someone local several times a week, I have time to meet them for a hike or coffee once a month -- that is, if they're worth the investment to begin with. It was hard at first to be tough about it, but it was soon liberating. I think we tend to fool ourselves about just how much of our lives can be "virtual" without doing damage that we only realize down the line...