My take is that there were a lot of tasks that were clearly delineated in the past: watching TV, reading news, paying bills, balancing the checkbook, playing ga

My take is that there were a lot of tasks that were clearly delineated in the past: watching TV, reading news, paying bills, balancing the checkbook, playing games, catching up with friends -- no-one could see you doing one and confuse it for something else. Now, we do all these things through a couple devices. I don't buy the idea that we're really doing that much different. It's just really hard to tell tasks apart; all we see is "guy staring at screen". But that guy staring at that screen? He could be checking a Twitter stream, or he could be reading a letter from his mother. He could be watching porn, or he could be studying for an exam. He could be playing Peggle, or he could be looking at photos of his new niece. The only thing I know for sure, is that it's wildly presumptuous to think I actually know what he's doing, just because it involves a screen.