Somehow I managed not to flag this article about "How the Internet, Social Media and Smartphones are Dividing and Conquering Our Consciousness" in the October issue of Elle (the one with Lady Gaga on the cover).

The first half of the article is about Daniel Goleman's new book Focus; the second half is mainly about The Distraction Addiction. 

These insights can directly inform how we go about reconfiguring our relationship to connectivity—how we manage our love affair with our phones and rearrange how we use our computers. We owe it to our sanity to do so, and we’ll be happier, saner, and more productive for it.

So where do we start? With ourselves, of course. “Recognize first of all,” Pang says, “that your own time and attention are incredibly valuable, and second, that a lot of those people who want your attention would be better served by waiting a little while”—when you’re in a better frame of mind and able to give them more of your attention.

Next? Your beloved phone. “These devices are a bit like evil, self-centered four-year-olds,” Pang says. “They want your attention all the time. When they want you to look at something, they want you to look at it right now. They have no sense of social boundaries.” Ideally, he says, you want your phone to behave like a CEO’s executive assistant—protecting you from interruptions and trivialities.

And kudos to author Ben Dickinson for talking about Csikszentmihalyi and flow. Good job!