I don’t agree with everything said about cell phone use in this article at Wired News, but one bit struck me as pertinent (emphasis mine):
…they allow you to remain detached from other commitments. We switch our phones off in the cinema because without bracketing all other concerns and giving our undivided attention to the drama unfolding on the screen we’d be wasting our time and money.
But what about the drama of our lives? Why is it OK to interrupt that? Is there such a thing as “emotional multitasking”? Maybe that’s what you were doing when you struggled to suppress rising irritation as you waited for my hell phone call to end … I’m sorry about that. And I’ll be sorry next time, too.