It is an effort, at least for 20 minutes, to slow the whole world down. It's a wonderful counterbalance to the frenzy, to the technological frenzy that we're otherwise in. We get involved in the mindless exercise of living from one upgrade to another and embracing every upgrade that comes along. Which I've tried to resist by keeping my old Macintosh. Technology is wonderful, but we have to be sensible about it and think about what we're doing instead of being run by technology.
Some people have it in balance and that's the point because it's extremely useful in many ways.
The paradox of e-mail is that it slows everything down. And it's great for grandmothers to keep in touch with their grandkids. That's the wonderful part of it. It cuts both ways. The thing is to figure out which ways it cuts so it improves your quality of life instead of detracting from your quality of life.