Open Thread

March 30th, 2009 9:43 AM

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Do you have Obsessive Mobile Disorder?

[M]obile multi-tasking is the plague of the day. You know the score: you are talking to a colleague and their eyes constantly flicker towards the BlackBerry for incoming e-mails. You are holding a meeting and half the staff are texting under the table. You are hoping for a hot date - as Jennifer Aniston, the American actress, was recently - and your boyfriend is hitting on Twitter, not you. These are symptoms of OMD, obsessive mobile disorder, and the dread disease CPA, continuous partial attention, in which victims come to believe that life via mobile might be more interesting than life right in front of them.

Do you have these maladies, or know someone who does? Are you disgusted by people who can't have a conversation without checking their cell phone or crackberry, or does it not bother you because...you're one of them?!?