From Ariana Huffington’s Vassar commencement address:

[In the past] Vassar students were given the emblem of an acorn to display on their doors when they did not wish to be disturbed. The custom was apparently discontinued, but I want to urge you to revive it as something to use physically and spiritually for the rest of your lives. It’s actually central to the three relationships I want to talk to you about today. And those are: your relationship with technology, your relationship with yourself, and your relationship with the world.

It hits all the points you might expect– multitasking is bad, weapons of mass distraction, the ways self-promotion short-circuit self-understanding, and so on.

A few highlights:

No generation has been as liberated and as connected by technology as yours. But also, no generation has been as enslaved and as distracted by technology. So bring on that acorn because as the writer Eric Barker said, “Those who can sit in a chair, undistracted for hours, mastering subjects and creating things will rule the world — while the rest of us frantically and futilely try to keep up with texts, tweets and other incessant interruptions.” Sadly, we have become not just distracted by our devices, our texts, emails, constant notifications, and social media, but addicted to them. And when it comes to social media, let me break it to you: our addiction is not a bug, but a feature. This isn’t some unforeseen side effect, it was always the intention, that social media would consume as much of our time and attention — as much of our lives — as possible….

If there is one thing I wish I knew when I was sitting where you are today — and by the way, there are many — it’s that the Delphic admonition “Know Thyself” and Socrates’ admonition that “the unexamined life is not worth living” are not ancient philosophical platitudes, but in fact the most relevant and important guiding truths for our lives. In the well-earned rush and excitement of your new life that’s about to begin, it’s remarkably easy to forget that most important relationship. That’s because the ever-increasing creep of technology — into our bedrooms, our brains, and our lives — makes it much harder to connect with ourselves….

while the world will provide plenty of insistent, pleading, flashing, high-volume signals directing you to distract yourself, to not be in the moment, to burn out in order to climb higher up the ladder of what the world defines as success, there will be almost no worldly signals reminding you to stay connected to the essence of who you are, to pause to wonder, and to connect to that place of wisdom in you — that place from which everything is possible.