Several times, this article mentions the notion - without really explaining it - that we have "anxiety of being understimulated." I think I understand what the

Several times, this article mentions the notion - without really explaining it - that we have "anxiety of being understimulated." I think I understand what the author means, but I'm not sure that's quite right. I agree with the main points that the author is making, but I wonder if this "culture of distraction" is really a symptom of an even larger problem. Consider the possibility that many of us are simply highly anxious just about all of the time, and that the distractions presented by wired life are things we seek out for relief on purpose. That is, that the distractions aren't the cause of the anxiety, but a symptom. Maybe checking in with Twitter over and over again isn't "stimulation," maybe it's more like a narcotic. It helps us block out genuine, serious anxieties about money, jobs, work, family, and the future in general with easily-digested, glittery trivia. One possible reason to think about the problem this way - although it may sound like a big change in subject at first - is antidepressant sales, which have been climbing for years and now stand at record levels. Clearly, for whatever reason, we've built a way of life for ourselves that leaves a huge percentage of us desperately unhappy and stressed out for an awful lot of the time. Perhaps the explosion of smartphones and tablets, of portable, pocketable "brain stimulation" is, for many people, a form of self-medication. When you have a moment of downtime, and you have a chance to think about just how screwed you and your family are if your name comes up in this next round of layoffs, you can instead reach in your pocket and check out the latest celebrity scandal. When a free moment strikes and you find yourself wondering what sort of fascist nightmare future-US your children are going to be stuck with, you can instead check out the latest shiny aspirational gadgets. Regardless of the cause, the "culture of distraction" is still a real phenomenon worth fighting, I think. But maybe we can fight it more successfully if we understand the causes more completely.