An Excerpt from What's Happening to Home? Balancing Work, Life, and Refuge in the Information Age by Maggie Jackson

In her eye-opening work about the blurring of the lines between home and work, Maggie Jackson points out the ways we are looking for a place to nurture ourselves.

"We are struggling with the increasing permeability of home wrought by technology. Unlike the telephone, which brought outsiders into our houses one at a time, the Internet connects us to the larger world. New technologies transform our relationships from 'episodic to always-on.' Our ability to control the fading boundaries of home often depends on power, as my conversations with secretaries show. The result is a marketplace of privacy, where the idea of refuge holds little currency. In dismantling the boundaries of home, we risk letting important elements of our humanity — peace, privacy, intimacy — slip away.

"Sensing these losses, we are seeking refuge elsewhere, imbuing spaces outside our homes with the qualities we lack within. We search for home in all corners of our lives — from the car, where we tap a concierge for help with our domestic chores; to a hotel room, where we search for the peace we can't find day-to-day; to the office, where we rest and play in a social web based on competition. We are trying out new ways to 'home.' "