Hooray for me…

Here is an excerpt from my last column in the Connecticut Law Tribune:

Here is my hypothesis. You take it out into the world, make your own observations if you haven’t already, and see if you think I’m right. Smartphones allow us to work more and work longer, but in many ways they diminish our humanity, and create a tension in our professional lives that is antithetical to our most important obligations as attorneys…

Above all else, it seems to me that the most important aspects of good lawyering are effective client communication, and concentration, and I wonder if smartphones impair, more than enhance, our capacity for both. The nature of a smartphone is that it relentlessly delivers information to its owner, constantly pulling that person’s focus willy-nilly in any number of different directions. Over the course of a few hours I find that the barrage of information from so many sources can create a cumulative, frenetic energy akin to downing a few cups of coffee in quick succession, making it all but impossible to concentrate on anything – particularly if I am, indeed, simultaneously downing several cups of coffee.

What do you think? 

My next column will, I believe, be in the Trib next week, and I have a feeling it will make certain college and university presidents a bit uncomfortable.  Stay tuned. 

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter right here.

Hey, most importantly, hooray for you, thanks for your support: I appreciate it.