by Zoë Pollock
In another dispatch from his year of living without internet, Paul Miller touches on something I totally experience, even when talking with loved ones:
The other day I was at my coffee shop, about to make an order, when I got into a conversation with another regular. And then, a few minutes in, I felt a familiar internal tug. A chime inside said it was "time to get back." It's one of the last vestiges of my former mental patterns. I get a vague feeling on occasion that it's been a little while since I've looked at my instant messages, checked my email, scrolled through Twitter, or refreshed The Verge front page. "Someone on my computer must miss me," it seems to say. It's a combination of a fear of missing out, and a hope of being missed.
But nobody on my computer misses me anymore. I let out a small sigh. It hurts to be inessential. And then I was back in the moment.
The Dish 