A few years ago, Tom Friedman had a column on the op-ed page of the New York Times called “The Taxi Driver.” He told of being driven by cab from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Paris.

During the one-hour trip, he and the driver had done six things: the driver had driven the cab, talked on his cell phone, and watched a video (which was a little nerve-racking!), whereas he had been riding, working on a column on his laptop, and listening to his iPod. “There was only one thing we never did: talk to each other.”

Friedman went on to quote Linda Stone, a technologist, who had written that the disease of the Internet Age is “continuous partial attention.”

Perhaps it is not only the disease of the Internet Age; perhaps it has always been with us, and just the causes of our inattention have altered.

from Feasting on the Word