Alex Soojung-Kim Pang has spent the past 20 years observing the interplay of people and technology. A professional futurist with a PhD in the history of science, he is a former Microsoft Research fellow, a visiting scholar at Stanford and Oxford Universities, and a senior consultant at a Silicon Valley-based think tank. In this thought-provoking work, Pang offers many helpful ideas on dealing with our monkey minds, coping with the distractions of the Internet, and being more contemplative about our computers.

According to polls, the average American spends about four months of each year reading e-mail, visiting Facebook and Twitter, shopping online, or doing other things on the Internet. Gamers can spend half a year online or more. All this adds up to a great and disturbing loss of time which cannot be retrieved.

Pang delineates two other growing problems stemming from spending so much of our life in front of a screen. A significant number of people suffer from "e-mail apnea" — unconsciously holding their breath when they check their e-mail, a habit that increases stress and stimulates the "flight or fight" reflex." Many others may experience "ringxiety" — extreme anxiety over missed phone calls that manifests itself as phantom cellphone vibrations.

As a remedy to these maladies. Pang presents the practice of "contemplative computing" based on four principles:

1. "Our relationships with information technologies are incredibly deep and express unique human capacities."
2. "The world has become a more distracting place — and there are solutions for bringing the extended mind back under control."
3. "It's necessary to be contemplative about technology."
4. "You can redesign your extended mind."

Pang counsels computer and software companies to stop producing such complicated products and to emphasize instead ways in which people can think more deeply. He is an advocate of "zenware" — software programs which help calm the frazzled mind and distraction addiction. Another suggestion is taking a regular "digital Sabbath." That may even include regularly scheduled walks during the day to give both the mind and the body some relief from the Internet and social media.

Pang ends on a high note with his commendation of Buddhist monastics and others who are using the Web as a place to test their mindfulness practices, their capacity for compassion, and the ethics of right behavior. "Connection is inevitable," he concludes. "Distraction is a choice." Be sure to check out the three appendixes on keeping a tech diary, rules for mindful social media, and taking a digital Sabbath.