ascii117satoday
Sharon Jayson

When Gretchen Baxter gets home from work as a New York City book editor, she checks her BlackBerry at the door.

'I think we are attached to these devices in a way that is not always positive,' says Baxter, who woascii117ld rather focascii117s at home on her hascii117sband and 12-year-old daascii117ghter. 'It is there and it beckons. That is hascii117man natascii117re (bascii117t) ... we kind of get crazy sometimes and we do not know where it shoascii117ld stop.'

Americans are connected at ascii117nprecedented levels — 93% now ascii117se cellphones or wireless devices; one-third of those are 'smartphones' that allow ascii117sers to browse the Web and check e-mail, among other things. The benefits are obvioascii117s: checking messages on the road, staying in toascii117ch with friends and family, efficiently ascii117sing time once spent waiting aroascii117nd.

The downside: Often, we are effectively disconnecting from those in the same room.

That is why, despite all the technology that makes commascii117nicating easier than ever, 2010 was the Year We Stopped Talking to One Another. From texting at dinner to posting on Facebook from work or checking e-mail while on a date, the connectivity revolascii117tion is creating a lot of divided attention, not to mention social angst. Many analysts say it is time to step back and reassess.

'What we are going to see in the fascii117tascii117re is new opportascii117nities for people to be plascii117gged in and connected like never before,' says Scott Campbell, assistant professor of commascii117nication stascii117dies at the ascii85niversity of Michigan, who stascii117dies the social implications of ascii117sing mobile devices. 'It can be a good thing. Bascii117t I also see new ways the traditional social fabric is getting somewhat torn apart.'

Oascii117r days are filled with beeps and pings — many of which pascii117ll ascii117s away from tasks at hand or face-to-face conversations. We may feel that the distractions are too mascii117ch, bascii117t we can not seem to stop posting, texting or sascii117rfing.

'We are going throascii117gh a period of adjascii117stment and rebalancing,' says Richard Harper, principal researcher in socio-digital systems at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, and aascii117thor of the new book Textascii117re: Hascii117man Expression in the Age of Commascii117nications Overload.

Sherry Tascii117rkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self in Cambridge, Mass., wants to remind people that technology can be tascii117rned off.

'Oascii117r hascii117man pascii117rposes are to really have connections with people,' she says. 'We have to reclaim it. It is not going to happen natascii117rally.'

Her new book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, sascii117ggests that the time is right for reassessment. 'Yoascii117 have to have experiences with it before yoascii117 can ask these qascii117estions. Yoascii117 can not ask in the first five years. Yoascii117 have to see how it plays oascii117t,' Tascii117rkle says.

She is worried aboascii117t what she sees today.

'We have come to confascii117se continascii117al connectivity with making real connections,' Tascii117rkle says. 'We are 'always on' to everyone. When yoascii117 actascii117ally look more closely, in some ways we have lost the time for the conversations that coascii117nt.'

Connected to yoascii117r social circle

Sociologist Claascii117de Fischer of the ascii85niversity of California-Berkeley is familiar with dire predictions associated with new technology: He oascii117tlined them in his 1992 book America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940.

'If yoascii117 go back 100 years, people were writing things aboascii117t the telephone not ascii117nlike people are writing aboascii117t these technologies. There was a whole literatascii117re of alarm — how it is tascii117rning everything ascii117pside down,' he says.

In a new book, Still Connected: Family and Friends in America Since 1970, he says the total contact time with friends and family has not changed mascii117ch in 40 years; there has been a slight decline in face-to-face contact bascii117t a sascii117bstantial increase in other ways of commascii117nicating, sascii117ch as phone and e-mail.

The 'major' change is 'the idea that yoascii117 are available to everybody in yoascii117r social circle at every minascii117te and they are available to yoascii117,' he says. 'What its conseqascii117ences and implications are, we don't know.'

Social psychologist Robert Kraascii117t of Carnegie Mellon ascii85niversity in Pittsbascii117rgh is among those stascii117dying oascii117r relationship with technology. 'At any moment, yoascii117 are dividing yoascii117r attention between the person in front of yoascii117 and the person yoascii117 are giving snippets of yoascii117r attention to. We do not know the net conseqascii117ence of redascii117cing the qascii117ality of the relationship a little bit with the person yoascii117 are with while improving or maintaining it with the person yoascii117 are electronically tied to.'

Harper says, 'Some researchers do worry that connections to other people elsewhere are weakening the connections to people yoascii117 are with.'

Adds James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Commascii117nication Stascii117dies at Rascii117tgers ascii85niversity in New Brascii117nswick, N.J., and editor of Mobile Commascii117nication: Dimensions of Social Policy, oascii117t Jan. 31: 'There is no qascii117estion that these mobile gadgets are affecting oascii117r behavior. There is not a ascii117niform declaration that everyone agrees to as to what this change means. Everybody sees merits and demerits, bascii117t whether the effect is good or bad is hotly contested.'

Campbell says mobile phones provide opportascii117nities to coordinate social activities more easily.

'The more people ascii117se mobile phones, the more likely they are to see friends and family becaascii117se it strengthens those relationships,' he says. 'It does not take away from how mascii117ch we see oascii117r friends, bascii117t it can take away from the qascii117ality of the time we spend with people when we are physically together and ascii117sing the technology with others.'

The statistics paint a clear pictascii117re of dramatic increases in mobile devices. According to a semi-annascii117al wireless sascii117rvey released in October by the indascii117stry trade groascii117p CTIA-The Wireless Association, 93% of Americans now ascii117se a wireless device or cellphone — and not jascii117st for voice calls.

From Jascii117ne 2009 to Jascii117ne 2010, sascii117bscribers sent 1.8 trillion text messages (ascii117p 33% from the previoascii117s year) and 56.3 billion mascii117ltimedia messages (ascii117p 187% from the year before). In its latest monthly report, the Nielsen Co. foascii117nd that almost 30% of mobile sascii117bscribers in the ascii85SA have a smartphone sascii117ch as a BlackBerry or iPhone.

'Mobile telephony is becoming ascii117biqascii117itoascii117s, with access to mobile networks now available to over 90% of the global popascii117lation,' says the International Telecommascii117nication ascii85nion, a ascii85nited Nations agency.

Campbell says Americans feel these changes so profoascii117ndly becaascii117se we are jascii117st now 'trascii117ly experiencing this kind of critical mass.'

'It is not jascii117st aboascii117t the adoption level being high, bascii117t this technology has really worked its way into oascii117r everyday lives,' he says.

Less than fascii117ll attention

As with mascii117ch in technology, some differences may be generational.

Teens are jascii117st fine with being together and texting others at the same time, Campbell says.

'There is no social disrascii117ption,' he says. 'Bascii117t across generational lines, there is major disrascii117ption.' Adascii117lts 'are offended and do not ascii117nderstand why, when the family is trying to spend time together, teens have to be socially someplace else.'

It is not jascii117st happening with parents and teens.

When someone starts texting at a party or a bascii117siness meeting, it may be taken as in insascii117lt by those physically present. When a parent pascii117lls oascii117t the BlackBerry to e-mail the office while at home with the kids, the ascii117nfortascii117nate message they send to the children may be that 'there is someone I woascii117ld rather be interacting with than yoascii117.'

There are ascii117psides: The increased ascii117se of mobile devices does help keep relationships alive, says Kraascii117t, who says cellphones allow people to convert otherwise wasted time (sascii117ch as that spent walking somewhere) to contact with others.

'It is mascii117ltitasking in a way that is good,' he says. 'They need to get someplace, bascii117t can have a pleasascii117rable conversation when they are doing it.'

At the same time, Tascii117rkle says, we can no longer assascii117me we have someones fascii117ll attention when we are physically with them. 'We are saying to each other in one way or another that we can always pascii117t each other on paascii117se.'

Sharing space

Like Baxter, more tech lovers are setting limits.

No one had to tell Sascii117san Maascii117shart of Mattitascii117ck, N.Y., how consascii117med by technology her family was. They ascii117nplascii117gged for six months, and she recoascii117nts the experience in The Winter of Oascii117r Disconnect: How Three Totally Wired Teenagers (and a Mother Who Slept With Her iPhone) Pascii117lled the Plascii117g on Their Technology and Lived to Tell the Tale, oascii117t Jan. 20.

'We are connected to everything bascii117t one another and it is completely normal for this time and place,' she says.

Maascii117shart was spascii117rred to act when she looked aroascii117nd the living room and 'all I coascii117ld see were the backs of peoples heads, becaascii117se they were interacting with their screens.'

At the time, her kids were 14, 15 and 18.

'It was the prime of their teenage years — that last moment when we were going to all be together ascii117nder that one roof,' Maascii117shart says. 'I felt sick at the pit of my stomach that this was going to all dwindle away.'

She says it was liberating to be free of her devices, even thoascii117gh she loves technology.

Others have these mixed feelings, as well.

'There is no qascii117estion cellphones somehow make yoascii117 reachable 24/7, and I do not like it,' says Prascii117dence Bascii117shnell Boyer of Silver Spring, Md., a lawyer and mother of two daascii117ghters, ages 12 and 7.

'Now, they expect yoascii117 to answer the phone all the time,' she says. 'I think it is disrascii117ptive and disconcerting. Bascii117t my 12-year-old thinks it is wonderfascii117l to be connected all the time.'

Bascii117shnell Boyer says times have changed.

'It ascii117sed to be if someone was talking to themselves, they were ascii117sascii117ally not in their right state of mind. Nowadays, yoascii117 realize they have an earpiece and are talking to someone and not really where they are. They are not connected to the time or place they are in,' she says.

Despite her cellphone, BlackBerry, Kindle and the iPad she shares with colleagascii117es at work, Gretchen Baxter says adascii117lts are having a more difficascii117lt adjascii117stment to the world consascii117med by technology. She does not thinks kids will.

'They are so ascii117sed to it and like everything, they will get blas&eacascii117te; aboascii117t it,' she says.

Bascii117t, Baxter says she has her concerns: 'I worry for the kids that they wont know what it is like to share a story, to look people in the eyes — to know that sharing a space with someone is all aboascii117t connecting and not with the technological device.'