Cellphones *disconnect* us?!

"Addicted" is a word being used in connection with technology a lot these days (see this item on "Net addiction"). In its report on a study in the Journal of Marriage in Family, the Christian Science Monitor quotes a woman teaching stress management as saying a lot of her clients are "addicted to staying in touch." They never turn off their cellphones, so that even when they're at home with their families, they're not really there. Sociologists are calling it "absent presence," the Monitor reports. "For employees on electronic leashes, cellphones and pagers raise questions about who draws the line between work and home, and where that line is." What the article, full of family anecdotes, seems to indicate is that the line is drawn differently at different times, and it depends on intentions and goals. Is one just being a workaholic at family members' expense, or is the phone actually helping parents be with children? The answer could be different from one hour to the next. In other words, it's complicated, and the answer isn't necessarily just to turn the phone off when at home or on vacation. One parent cited in the piece could only go on vacation because he had his phone with him. What's *your* family's experience with cellphones (both parents' and kids')? What answers have you found? I'd love to hear from you about this.