I've solved my phone addiction by deleting all the apps I was addicted to - email, browser - and getting my wife to add parental controls, to limit access even further.
Email did precisely what I predicted, back in 1978, it took over the postal mail process and system of writing letters.
As with email, the recipient of a texted question seems to have the option to ignore it, while nevertheless saying, 'Hello, lovely day,' and so on.
Readers would email me and say, 'Please write a novel about so-and-so,' but it has to come from yourself and not so much from your readership.
When I was sent the script for 'Homeland,' I didn't think anything of it. Three months later, my manager rang and said: 'They are interested in you.' I read it and I realised, 'Yes, I do want this.' Then I got an email saying I'd got it.
I don't spend much time on the computer at all, so I do most of my email on my phone if I do any at all.
I can't tell you how many times I've been writing an article only to get distracted by an email notification, either on my laptop or smartphone.
My email is constantly full, and I'm constantly being called, like, 'We need your decision on this.'
I like the idea of separation of services. ISPs provide a pipe. Other vendors provide security. Other vendors provide email. When one party controls all the services, it's a 'synergy' for the company, but rarely for the consumer.
I'm baffled that Mark Greenberg would send an offensive email politicizing the beheading of an American journalist.