Reclaiming Conversation

An Insidious Presence

At home and at work, even as you sleep, your devices – the smartphone or tablet – attach to you and surround you. Their apps monitor, buzz, beep and ring at you, and even when they don’t, you can’t resist their allure. Engineers and designers have made email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Fitbits and other tools addictive. They reward you through the neurochemicals you experience when you use them. They give you the illusion of accomplishment and productivity, and keep loneliness at bay.

No wonder you ignore your children at home, your colleagues at work, your relationships with friends and lovers and, ultimately, yourself. Even during the best movies and most engaging presentations, you can’t resist your phone. At work during important meetings – for example, Senator John McCain once played poker on his phone during a Congressional hearing – you text. Not even intimate relations can compete with the phone.

The costs, though not immediately obvious, include kids who can’t converse or relate in person and who exhibit little empathy. In organizations, isolation leads to declining morale, less creativity, little collaboration...