Now I know the verb is tweeting but using the term twittering was the initial mistake by Bob Herbet, one of my favorite op-ed writers at the New York Times.  He corrected it after some kids told him what to say and thus the title to his column, Tweet, Less, Kiss More. He writes about “a heightened freneticism that seems to demand that we be doing, at a minimum, two or three things every single moment of every hour that we’re awake. Why is multitasking considered an admirable talent? We could just as easily think of it as a neurotic inability to concentrate for more than three seconds.” I agree and I think twittering is a good term for this frenzy multitasking.

I have to admit that I sometimes fall prey to this behavior. I am watching the Open golf championship as I write this.  Golf is a good sport to multitask. I would never attempt to write a post during a World Cup football match. I like to pick my multi-tasking to allow for proper concentration for the task. There are many more mundane things that I reserve for multitasking with TV.  I still like some noise to concentrate and have certain jazz ballads that I play when I really want to focus while writing. But this is a diversion from the Bob’s main point.  I can see the negative impact when I try to jam too much into multi-tasking. Something suffers.

We also need to escape at times from being plugged it. This is a practice I try to follow and use painting as one route. More often I have my cell phone turned off than on but maybe I am too old school.  Bob encourages us to “put down at least some of these gadgets and spend a little time just being ourselves. One of the essential problems of our society is that we have a tendency, amid all the craziness that surrounds us, to lose sight of what is truly human in ourselves, and that includes our own individual needs — those very special, mostly nonmaterial things that would fulfill us, give meaning to our lives, enlarge us, and enable us to more easily embrace those around us.”

Bob also encourages us to listen more, even if it is simply to listen to our own inner thoughts. This is perhaps his best advice.