For the same reason, I never saw the appeal of IM or texting. The beauty of email is that–just like a land line phone with answering machine–it insulates you from real time communication and enables you to deal with people when you feel like getting around to it.

Cell phones and text messaging remind me of the Vonnegut story “Harrison Bergeron.” People of above-average intelligence were required to carry “handicaps” that constantly disrupted their thought processes with loud noises or electrical shock, so that they were unable to pursue a coherent train of thought. In our world, people are lining up to buy their handicaps. I’ve organized more outlines, even draft paragraphs, in my head while on long walks, than I could possibly count. When I see most of the people on a sidewalk engaged in telephone conversations, I can’t help wondering “when the hell do these people ever manage to think?”