Tethered to Technology — Letters that should have been in the new york times

OCT. 3, 2015

To the Editor: The dangers of texting and driving are well known, but this essay highlights the pervasive negative impact of texting while living. This is evident when walking down a busy street with people looking down and texting on their phones, oblivious to others. More painful is the mother strolling her infant while her gaze is on her phone rather than her child.

It is obvious to me as a psychoanalyst that many patients use texting as a form of pseudo-intimacy and distraction from the present moment — whether it is a moment with another person or oneself. I had one patient suggest to me that I keep talking while she responded to a text; turning off her cellphone in sessions marked the beginning of a process of introspection and being present.

The problem is that no one is selling, advertising or tempting the public with the “wares” of empathy and introspection. It behooves parents to model for their children restraint in their use of gadgetry and to have the kinds of conversations with them that can only occur without distraction.

LARRY S. SANDBERG

New York

The writer is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical Center.