The impact of handheld devices on our social lives is visible enough; we all see people stop in the middle of a conversation to answer a ringing mobile phone. We’re even becoming used to it, willing to forgive this rather rude behavior. But there is one category of such interruptions where the rudeness is inexcusable, and that is where the affected party isn’t a “consenting adult”: we also interrupt our interaction with our children.

The Wall Street Journal carried a wonderful article titled “Blackberry orphans” a few years ago that discussed in some detail how the toll on parental attention – already scarce in our workaholic age – is affecting the kids, and how the little rascals fight back. The true story of the little girl that flushed her mom’s Blackberry down the toilet is unforgettable. And the other day I saw a movie that reminded me that it isn’t only little kids that need attention. This was “Comme une image” (renamed “Look at me” in the English world), which deals with the relationship of a 20 year old woman (who is overweight and under-confident) with her father, a famous and rather unpleasant novelist who pays her no attention. Director Agnes Jaoui (who also acts in the movie) used cellular phone interrupts almost incessantly throughout the movie, adding a dimension of hustle and bustle, and neatly conveying an aspect of the alienation of the daughter by her busy and insensitive father.

In centuries past, too, some parents were inaccessible to their kids; but then it was probably more along the lines of “Leave Daddy alone, he’s reading his morning paper“, or “Shhh! Mother has a headache!“… In this 21st century, by contrast, we take the headache and the work with us wherever we move, 24 by 7. Oh, brave new world!