The phantom of simplicity and ease vanishes as people frantically dash about trying to squeeze out the last ounce of satisfaction. Surely the smart equipment slated for our domestic tomorrow will finally help us achieve the trouble-free existence of our dreams. Don't count on it. In Silicon Valley, for example, several anthropologists are studying the detailed movements of people employed in the electronics and computing industries. Their findings, summarized recently in USA Today , suggest that, if anything, the rat race identified by Professor Cowan and others is being reproduced and greatly intensified.
Adults work long hours, commute long distances and spend little time at home.
Mom and dad stay in touch by cell phone and pager, check the Web for schedule changes, and coordinate the next day's agenda by synchronizing their Palm Pilots when they meet at night. Conditions of this kind take shape as people who work in technical fields adapt family life to the norms and pulse of their high-tech jobs. I'm stunned at all they do. The picture that emerges is of an endlessly busy, complicated, precariously balanced, strung-out existence in which traditional boundaries between work and leisure have evaporated. Indeed, this is the very path through which the madness spreads, grasping us more firmly.