I enjoyed Mr. Shenk's return visit to a book that'd been gathering vintage for a decade. But near the end, he asks: "Do we really want an iPhone, with all of its capabilities, to accompany us to dinner and to the park?" Answer: you can always, you know, leave it on the nightstand.
I suppose that Mr. Shenk, like a lot of us, takes the cell phone for granted. We assume we have to have our phones at all times because, well, we've gotten used to it. But there was a time, not long ago, where people were unreachable when they weren't at home. The detriments of constant stimuli can be easily overcome if you just leave the device that delivers them in your other pants. I'm not talking about a return to rotary phones and Morse code here; I'm just suggesting that Mr. Shenk presents the world as an invasive and oppressive setting where there is, essentially, no escape. I'm just suggesting you can push all that stimuli and information aside simply by choosing to. When the menu at the local diner is a e-menu, full of emoticons and pop-up ads, well, then it's time to worry.
