I get the addiction. I succumb to it myself, because it's human. That's why we have to learn to use the technology mindfully and not buy into the social construct that it's okay to be mindless, rude and disconnected from the real world as long as we use the "I'm busy" excuse.

In the 1840s, Benjamin Disraeli, still a long way from being prime minister, wanted to wake people up to the plight of the British working class. The alarm he sounded wasn't delivered in a speech, a pamphlet, or an article -- but in a novel, Sybil, published in 1845. Ever since I read Sybil when I was at Cambridge, I've loved thinkers and writers who use storytelling to reach people and get us to act. And so it was that I found myself moderating a panel discussion last week with the director and two cast members of a movie that uses storytelling to wake us up to one of the biggest problems of our modern age: the effect that being "connected" to technology 24/7 is having on our ability to connect with our lives, ourselves, and the people we love. Like so many people, this is something I struggle with on a regular basis. That's why Disconnect struck a nerve.

For one (waking) hour a day, I am now electronics-free. I turn off my phone (oh the horror!), my laptop and my TV. It doesn't much matter what I do during that hour; just knowing that I have that time just for me, that no one can disturb, is relaxing in itself. To recharge, sometimes we have to unplug.