The NYTimes covers the benefit of totally unplugging from electronic communications for a zen moment. Our ability to create and distribute information is definitely accelerating past our ability to parse and absorb it, thus we’re going to see a number of interesting social and technical tools designed to restore the balance.
One example is the rise of “extreme destination travel.” You think your friends actually want to travel 7,500 miles to summit a mountain? No, they just want to be out of blackberry range and have a convincing OOO status message. Who’s going to buy “in Miami without access to email?” But “hiking in australian outback without mobile” – that sounds reasonable.
Scary that people require social acceptance of their ability to unplug. Shouldn’t we have the ability to decide independent of what other people think of what we’re doing? Have we stopped becoming individual beings and need to submit to the will of the collective before taking any sort of action?