Brian you have hit the nail on the head in your mention of technology, and the desire to be pursued and relevant in a competitive attention world.
We are always “Racing to the next experience.”(“Unlimited” by Todd Gitlin, Page 74, 2001) If we are not always doing the next thing, “One lives as if they might miss out on something.” (“The Gay Science” Nietzsche, 1882) If we are not at work or around family we have all kinds of options on the menu, and “Idleness is eager for amusement.” (George Eliot, 1859) A keep going first, ask questions later phenomenon. We are always “anticipating for something new.”(“Alone together” by Sherry Turkle, 2011.) Each of these feelings prompts the current behavior we see around us.
"Many people are feeling a strange vibrating in the air these days. This constant invisible hum has to do with those who rush past others, avoiding eye contact and babbling to themselves." (24/7 Jarice Hanson, page 1, 2007.) Did that person say something to you or me? Oh no, turns out they were shouting into the Bluetooth that we couldn’t see! Our cell phone, or whatever personal digital assistant, has become the connective form of communication and we have become more casual in our conversations with certain people in certain contexts. “Don’t want to see someone? Then call them. Don’t want to call someone? E-mail them. Don’t want to take the trouble of writing sentences? Text them. It’s the ultimate social crutch to avoid personal communication.”("Generation Myspace" Candice Kelsey, page 77, 2007)
On means On:
“In the city, you must be alert, watchful for movement, yet unlike the hunter, you may not know what you’re watching for. You live in eclectic readiness. The built in paradox of urban life is that the unexpected takes you places so frequently that it comes to be expectable – not any particular expected event but the unexpectedness categorically. You are on call… on edge…on… at any moment your phone may ring, an acquaintance may pass by, the news chimes may ring."("Media unlimited" Todd Gitlin, Page 84,2001) Technology is more and more giving us the ‘always on’ phenomenon. Jessi Rice in his book “The Church of Facebook” puts it this way, “Continuous partial attention is an always on, anywhere, anytime, anyplace behavior that creates an artificial sense of crisis. We are always in high alert.”
Nothing is more exhilarating than a crush on a guy, and nothing is more intoxicating than a barrage of text messages from that guy.
. I certainly am! Heritage is English but I do live in Canada. Southern Ontario to be exact.