While the latest information technologies have made it possible for us to communicate with one another and to gain access to information more quickly than ever before, it is now clear that these powerful capabilities are also contributing to information overload, to extreme busyness, to the fragmentation of attention, and to accelerated and even frantic modes of working and living. One of the most unfortunate casualties of this trend is the loss of time for reflection and contemplation—the loss of time to think.

The UW Information School, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is organizing a conference to explore the extent of the problem and possible responses to it. . . . more