Last night I watched an episode of my new addiction, Mad Men.

It was a great episode.

The lead character, Don Draper, just kind of disappeared. He left a business meeting and wasn’t heard from for a week.

Everybody was asking, “Where’s Don?”

And his co-workers had to make all these excuses for him.

Nobody knew where he was!

It made me think about modern life. We’re so accessible all the time.

We sit around the house watching TV and the phone is always by our side, like you’re in a fucking relationship. I’ve never seen a relationship where people are so co-dependent with each other.

It’s amazing if you look at people, they’re always touching their phone, fondling their phone, playing with their phone.

Hell, the Blackberry years ago had that little button on it that looked like a clitoris. There was that little round button on the Blackberry Pearl, and I used to play it with it all the time.

If you’re reading this at work, look around your office right now. Take a look. How many people are playing with their phone?

It’s our new best friend, the telephone.

It’s crazy.

You could receive a text at 11:30 at night, intruding your sleep or your nighttime routine, and they actually fucking expect you to text back. They’re not just sharing a statement; they expect you to text back and converse with them.

It used to be that if you call somebody late at night, it was no big deal, you’d leave a voicemail message or something, or the phone would just ring. It’s amazing how our culture has changed so now everybody expects you to be accessible all the time.

Your boss will send you an e-mail at 11:30 at night—not because they want to get work done, but because they want to see how accessible you are.

When’s the last time you disappeared, and where did you disappear to? Be honest, did you have your little best friend with you—your little iPhone in your pocket, humming and vibrating and chirping at every available moment? Did you have your Blackberry sitting by your side?

When’s the last time you disappeared for a day and actually allowed the e-mails to pile up, or allowed the phone to ring and go to voicemail?

When’s the last time you went to bed at night without checking the Internet?

Take me back to the good ‘ol days at least one day a week when you’re not accessible and you can just say, “fuck it” and just disappear.

Take me back to the 60s.