The Verge reports:

The Pew Research Center is one of the largest sources of information on how Americans use technology like smartphones, social media, and broadband networks. This doesn’t just mean collecting data, it means figuring out which questions are meaningful — something that can be revealing in its own right. Today, the center released a brief report on how often American adults go online, adding a new survey option: “almost constantly.”

This is one of those small changes that feels a bit like a tectonic shift, rather like being able to select more than one box in surveys that ask for race or ethnicity.

It’s significant for our purposes because 99.9% of our time online is spent interacting with something— a service, a like button, an endless feed, an infinite home page. Being online means being engaged. There’s lots of opportunity for distraction, but little opportunity tor disengagement and mind-wandering. Being online offers few opportunities for deliberate rest.

Think of it this way. There’s no way to be “on” Facebook, and be a presence, without saying or doing something. If you’re in a room with someone, you can just sit with them. You don’t have to talk or watch something; you can just be together. (Two weeks ago, when my mother was visiting for Thanksgiving and I was finishing my book manuscript, we did a lot of that.) But on Facebook, you’re either active, or you’re absent; there’s no equivalent of quiet presence.

This is not necessarily bad, nor is it the product of a conscious design choice on someone’s part; but it’s something we need to take note of, just as we would note when we buy a car that we shouldn’t fall asleep while driving it. If we want to be smart users, it’s something to be aware of.