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Narrator:

In today's society with our trios and our cell phones and everything, how does one kind of escape that general feeling of tension?

Patricia Farrell, PhD:

Well, I think you have to put limits on things, and I think that unfortunately, we haven't learned that yet. It's okay to say, look you know what, between 6 and 7 tonight, when I have dinner with my family, my cell phone will be off. I will not be answering calls, unless it's a dire emergency, and I mean World War III better have broke out, alright?

Patricia Farrell, PhD (cont.):

You need to give yourself that, and you need to have people understand that you will be doing this. I think if more of us did that, that would then become okay. Right now, you may seem like an anomaly. But you know, we weren't built to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We're not machines, we're not computers. We need down time, and down time means time away from those things. So just let people know.

Patricia Farrell, PhD (cont.):

It's going to be a little hard, because you have to stand up for yourself a little bit. And I see people walking down the streets with their cell phones all the time. And I don't think that's terribly necessary, but I think that people have a great deal of difficulty being alone and they need a connection. But what kind of connection is that? That's a very, very illusive connection.