Opening paragraphs....................

      In September 2016, the influential blogger and commentator Andrew Sullivan wrote a 7,000-word essay for New York magazine  titled "I Used to Be a Human Being."  Its subtitle was alarming:  "An endless bombardment of news and gossip and images has rendered us manic information addicts.  It broke me.  It might break you, too."

-Cal Newport, from the introduction to Digital Minimalism:  Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World