Why I Gave Up Candy Crush For My Dog

Everyone has ADD these days. You can't ride the subway in New York unless you have a smart phone laden with games, books and conversations. Deep thinkers are plodders while shiny penny chasers are "idea" people who chase the next innovation and find the best hacks. Speed to execution bests quality and agile pivots are the new black.

You call this progress?

As an easily distracted graduate student, I had to hide myself away at a small desk, tucked snugly under the roof on the top floor of the old library, surrounded by dust motes and pigeon droppings. It was the only way I could shut out the world and focus on my really difficult course work. Plus no one could hear me scream when I tried to run regression analyses based on Poisson distributions with a 95% confidence level of correlation (no, I have no idea what that means and I didn't then).

When that two year call of duty was over I entered a work world with huge clumping desktops and bad hair styles. An age of private offices, constantly ringing telephones and meetings three subway stops away. It was a simpler time, where bosses were allowed to yell at you, retail was a growth industry and a smart phone meant a snappy new model in a cool color with lots of buttons to press. You dressed well, respected the boss and spelling still counted. We even used fax machines that made whirring noises and occasionally threw hissy fits when you needed them most.

The bigger my job got, the more reliant I was on machines. I lobbied hard for my first employer paid blackberry, thrilled at the 24/7 communication cycle that kept me close to my clients. I loved each technological advance, cheerily jettisoning Wordperfect and Lotus, those early awkward Davids, for the rocking Goliaths of Word and Excel. Macs were a miracle, Windows a release from that terrifying black blank screen with the flashing green cursor. These were tools, electrifying in their usefulness and every new iteration made me drool for more. I could not get enough stuff.

But bad things started to happen. My iPad nestled itself to sleep on my right side, while the cell phone slumbered on my left. When working on the lap top I had three devices simultaneously open and close at hand, shifting from one to the other just for a change of pace. I was more impatient than ever, and started multi tasking at a much higher level than I was capable of. Gone were the days of taking patient notes, or working on one and only one thing for two hours. I expected immediate responses and fretted when I couldn't get a client on the phone immediately or have an email answered within the hour. Private offices disappeared, and we were slotted into open space, disguised as a way to foster collaboration, when it was really just a way to save money. Too much noise, too much closeness, too much information, too much of too much.

When was I supposed to ruminate, think, scheme, plot and imagine? I'm not the meditating sort, but clearly I needed a way to unplug and rest the over stimulated neurons. Something I could bounce to, but quickly drop. Something that would be fun, but not taxing. Something always available to me whenever I needed a breather. Something I could access easily, quickly and any time I wanted, day or night.

The joy of mindless pleasure! The exhilaration of accomplishment when I advanced to a new level after being stuck there for days! Or winning a tournament over unknown and nicknamed competitors from across the globe! Refreshed and flush with victory I could return to work with my visual cortex all aglow and my mind ready for the more significant challenges ahead.

But I couldn't. The games were another short term task that endlessly repeated itself, a siren who sang to something deeply buried in my hippocampus, beckoning me to try again. And again. It wasn't soothing, it was cognitive opium. It made me stupider, slower, and like Doritos, it was completely addictive. Sure, it gave me a break from work, but it made me jumpier and more fragmented, not soothed and replenished.

It's pretty embarrassing when you've been scolding your teenager for years to stop killing Nazi zombies when in truth you're a middle aged woman holed up in bed playing angry birds. Hey! Don't judge me until you've tried it - those pigs had it coming.

But where was my rehab? My 12 step program? Where could I go to dry out?

Then she raised a paw.

Or more accurately licked my face. If I needed a break why didn't I rub her tummy? Want some fun, how about a tug of war? Or perhaps a little exertion to get the blood running and the juices flowing? There are always squirrels aplenty to stalk and chase in the park. Feeling low? Slavish devotion is yours with an onslaught of kisses. Tired? A quick dog (we don't say cat in my house) nap yields a refreshed and newly rested you.

Maybe you're trapped in the cubicle from hell. Or you don't like dogs (what is wrong with you?!). And you need some other way to counter balance the over stretched tension of your peripatetic day as you bounce from useless meeting to over clogged in box to unreturned texts on both your cell phones - not to mention your real work.

Find something that's a break from all these shards of experience - one thing that belongs to you and escapes the madding crowd. Take a ten minute walk. Go read for 15 minutes in an empty conference room. Call a friend and just ask how they are. Make a connection - with a thought that needs nursing or a friend who needs attention.

If you require inspiration, I can only quote that great philosopher of yore, Jimmy Durante.

Yeah, you need a device to listen to it, but I'll give you a pass this time.