The rush and yak [of cellphones] gives a sense of importance; the exhausting yet aggrandizing illusion that life will not go on, work will not be completed, children will fail and friends go astray without our constant fuss and management. It has become fashionable to be too busy, a bragging point to be harried and over-worked. Multi-tasking is touted as desirable, "having it all" considered attainable. Not to be constantly doing, always talking, marks one as less successful than her rushing, nattering peers. Maybe without the yammer of our imaginary importance we're afraid there would be no self, just . . . nothing, so we're desperate to keep up the constant rain of words, trudging through a fog of aimless chatter and mind-numbing worries, eating without tasting, hearing without listening, looking without seeing.
— Nevada Barr, Seeking Enlightenment. . . Hat by Hat