Wilbers: Are you :-) or :-( about technology's hold on your life?

In 1976, I used a converted IBM Selectric typewriter to produce a stack of punch cards as I "word-processed" my Ph.D. dissertation on the University of Iowa's mainframe computer. My professors wondered how I was retyping my revised copy so quickly.

In the early 1980s, I watched a blinking amber cursor move across a black screen as I typed a brief message and clicked "send." It seemed harmless enough.

In the late 1990s, I started work at 8 a.m. with three important tasks I wanted to complete by noon, glanced at my e-mail messages and looked up at the clock. It was 11 a.m.

Yesterday, after spending most of my day hunched over my laptop, I was walking along the Minnehaha Creek, crab apple trees in bloom, when I felt a vibration in my pocket. A giant hand appeared, something flashed and I was yanked from my surroundings.

Today, much of what is known by humankind is accessible to me at the tap of my finger. I spend more and more of my day tethered to a virtual world, unresponsive to what is going on around me.

I ask you, is this progress?

Of course it is. Our rapidly changing technologies are mind-boggling, extraordinary, fascinating and just plain fun.

I remember Walt Whitman, who could see the universe in a single blade of grass. I think of Henry David Thoreau, who sought to discover a higher law by opening his mind to the miracle of the present moment.

It was Thoreau who on completion of the telegraph from Maine to Texas observed, "But Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate."

Was the telegraph progress?

Of course it was. But even as we embrace the new, we should reflect on what is lost.

Are you, like me, finding technology so captivating that it's altering the way you think and work? If so, here are some simple things you can do to regain control:

• Be aware of what's going on around you (especially when you're driving).

• Close your mail server when working on important projects.

• Silence unnecessary alerts.

• Don't check Facebook or go browsing until you've accomplished or at least started working on your main task of the day.

• Complete one task before starting another.

• Sort your messages by importance; respond to important ones first, and then deal with or delete less important ones.

• Give your family, friends and colleagues your undivided attention.

• If you must take a call when you're with other people, don't just start talking; say "Excuse me."

• When you dine out, have everyone in your group put their phones in the middle of the table. The first person who touches a phone pays the bill.

• Leave your phone at home when you go for a walk.

In short, don't let technology hijack your life.