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The way we're attached to our phones these days, they buzz and twitch in our pockets, and we have to look and see if it was a text, a voicemail, or an e-mail. We're almost like lab rats. I tried to eschew the whole cell phone theory until I had kids; then, I had to be reachable at all times.

We all know the feeling of surrendering to the embedded biases of our devices. We let our cell phones ping us every time there's an incoming message and check our e-mail even when we'd best pay attention to what's going on around us in the real world. We text while driving.

I assume everything I'm saying in an email or saying on the telephone is being looked at.

I hate the amount of communication, the obligation that you have just by owning a phone.

My cellphone calls random people.

I'm rarely in a position where I can actually answer my phone without being rude to someone else. Sometimes I look back and realize it's been weeks since I've actually been alone. With texting, I can at least get a sense of what's going on without interrupting what I'm doing.

Now we're e-mailing and tweeting and texting so much, a phone call comes as a fresh surprise. I get text messages on my cell phone all day long, and it warbles to alert me that someone has sent me a message on Facebook or a reply or direct message on Twitter, but it rarely ever rings.

My life is scheduled to the minute. I used to be notoriously hard to get a hold of. But now, it would be irresponsible for me to say, 'I'm not checking my phone.'

Our cellphones can do everything, but they're bad at letting us talk to each other.