Windowed living

When you switch on your computer, do you have an urge to open a few windows to work on a couple of applications simultaneously (e.g. a couple of web browser tabs, email, a file manager window)? Or, on the contrary, too many windows get you stressed and when you do end up with a few open applications you start closing them down?

Do you feel comfortable maintaining two different SMS conversations with two different people while you also read the newspaper or play with your kid? When you get in your car to go back home, do you have an urge to attach your handsfree on your ear and start making calls?

The mobile phone is so personal, and we have become so deft at using it, often without even looking at it, that we can increasingly multitask between mobile phone use and other activities. Young people casually sustain two or more SMS conversations simultaneously. In doing so they switch between identities and emotional states seamlessly. It's like opening multiple windows on our living.