Yesterday, I got a large volume of negative feedback after linking to Nick Bilton’s NYT article on the possible health risks associated with cell phones and wearables. The criticisms (quack science, poor research, fear mongering) of the piece spread across the tech community, where the opinons were near unanimous and mostly on the mark. But I never would have predicted that questioning the safety of cell phone use would have been the issue to drive enough negative replies to bulge my inbox. I have a feeling this is about something bigger. And it’s an issue I’ve been thinking and writing about for several years. No, there’s not any evidence that cell phones cause cancer. But you should still be afraid.

+ Matthew B. Crawford on the cost of paying attention: “We’ve sacrificed silence — the condition of not being addressed. And just as clean air makes it possible to breathe, silence makes it possible to think.”