Slow down?

Been thinking about this for a while.
Just heard about the new Nielsen report that talked about increasing media multi-tasking. We are apparently spending about 3.5 hours a week watching TV and surfing the web at the same time. Brought to mind all the times I have observed the world around me continually increasing its rpms. Are we going too fast and doing too much? Is there any objectivity in this matter?

Maybe it's laziness, but I keep observing that I very much enjoy slowing down. Meditation is the ultimate slow down, and after some early struggles, I have learned to love that slow, silent space. To sit and do nothing at all. Not easy for someone with a mild case of ADD. At the core of this is attention, it seems. About the ability to keep attention gently focused on ONE thing. When I sit in the morning, that thing is breathing. It can also be cooking, eating, walking, even washing dishes (which is great, cause washing dishes used to be torture). Whatever it is, there is all of a sudden much more interest in what is being experienced, a great vitality of sorts. Boredom is transcended by the simplicity and wonder of the experience.

Why damn it, why did this not come to me in college?? I swear I could have had a PhD or two by now.

But regardless of when it comes, I am grateful that I now know about my ability to pay attention. That it can be applied, and cultivated, and refined. I often find myself deliberately focusing all my attention on whoever is speaking to me. How simple, and yet how ubiquitously illusive... Or noticing the taste of food in my mouth. Or feeling the road under the tires of my bike. Fascinating.

Of course, the other side of this is that multi-tasking is often useful and productivity is greatly increased. We can't all chill out and chew each bite 40 times and only pay attention to one thing at time. Or can we?

Kinda makes me wanna go back to school.