Pico Ayer of the New York Times on quiet:
In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.
Cell phones had just become affordable for regular people when I became an adult. I've lived this mad rush to ever more advanced devices. It's been a wild ride, but we've definitely gone to far. Some of my favorite times are those when my iPhone is turned off, or better yet, far away.