Digital Minimalism

As I write this, I’m about to take off on a flight from Toronto to Orlando. That means — gasp — three hours without being connected to the Internet. There’s an out. For a small charge I can connect while cruising 30,000 feet in the air in case I need (or want) to stay connected.

It wasn’t so long ago that we lived without smart phones or even cell phones in our pockets and purses, and that screen time referred to our consumption of TV. Now many of us feel unsettled when we forget our phones a...