Interruptions 

We are absolutely loaded with interruptions. Phone calls. Social media alerts. Text messages. Emails. That one person who says, “Real quick…” and then talks for 20 minutes. This newsletter? Let’s be honest — it might be interrupting you right now. Sorry about that.

Now, some interruptions are nice. A call from a friend. Good news. Someone bringing you food. But most interruptions have one job, and they do it beautifully: they interrupt.

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time — not all that long ago — when people weren’t reachable every second of the day. Younger readers, I regret to inform you that we once lived in a magical era where you could just… disappear. No texts. No notifications. No “Where are you???” messages with three question marks and rising panic.

Back then, you could start something and actually finish it. I know — it sounds made up. Like a fairy tale. “Once upon a time, a person completed a task without checking his phone.”

The other day, I was driving my truck and thinking about this. There was a time when being in your vehicle meant peace and quiet. It was your own little bubble of freedom. Nobody knew where you were. Nobody knew what you were doing. And somehow, the world kept spinning anyway.

Now? If you don’t respond within five minutes, people assume you have fallen off the grid, joined a monastery or been abducted.

Somewhere along the line, we all agreed — without actually agreeing — that we should be available 24/7 and share every detail of our lives. What we had for breakfast. A couple hundred selfies. Where we “checked in.”

And, of course, it’s not enough to share our own lives — we also have to keep up with everyone else’s breakfast, selfies and check-ins. It’s exhausting. I know more about what people ate this morning than I know about my own extended family.

At this point, it’s fair to call it what it is: an addiction. One that, some would argue, was carefully engineered by Big Tech to keep us scrolling, clicking and occasionally wondering why we opened the app in the first place.

And like any addiction, it’s tough to break.

So maybe the solution is simple — or at least simple in theory. Put the phone down. Ignore a notification. Sit in your car for an extra minute before going inside. Experience a brief, glorious interruption-free moment.

Just don’t forget to post about it later.