I’ve read plenty of Buddhists who talk about the inability of the ‘typical Western mind’ to sit and be alone with itself in a quiet room. As a typical Western mind I’m enamored by distractions. I think about this when I look at the clock and five hours have passed since I’ve come home, lost to Twitter, Flickr, Reddit and Facebook. Everyone talking and no one thinking.

Of course we’re all very smart and know that the “information age” is “at war with stillness” but I’m surprised at how easy it is to fool myself into thinking the Internet is any different than television, particularly in its ability to present unserious things in a way that can keep me distracted from the “serious thoughts” that maybe I am supposed to be having, or want to be having.