“With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations—none of which I know how to work—information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. All of this is not only putting new pressures on you. It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.” —Pr

increasing appetite for gadgets and the Web has made us lazy and less active.

“Ironically, with all this, ‘We’re now more connected than ever with technology,’ I don’t think we’ve ever been farther apart.” —Drew Barrymore

I was the guy who connected with everybody; inside, I knew I’d actually lost connection with the people I cared most about. And I’d lost connection with myself. I couldn’t take it anymore. Technology was becoming toxic. My primary poisons were social networks. I needed out.

The study’s authors found this group easily distracted and incapable of ignoring irrelevant information.

Those who say we’re often better off, like Jonah Lehrer, tech writer and author of How We Decide, claim that stimulating our brains in different ways can make us more creative and open to new ideas.

or more hours a day using technology had a 17 percent to 44 percent higher risk of being overweight and a 10 percent to 61 percent higher risk of obesity.

“e-obesity” problem.

The only difference was that I wouldn’t be broadcasting my every move to 1,664 friends, most of whom I didn’t even know.