Have you seen the new Nextel Blackberry commercial?  This commercial is brilliant.  It is not brilliant because it is made so well (although the production value seems good to me).  It is not brilliant because of the product (although I hear Blackberrys are great phones).  It is brilliant because of the story it tells.

Have you noticed all of the best or most memorable commercials tell a story.  There is the old Nextel commercial where people get married quickly utilizing their Nextel phones or the one where the businessmen cut a deal quickly because of their phones.  But this one is even more brilliant.

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Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a general description applied to people who have trouble staying focused on something, such as a task, a conversation, or minor surgery.  People with ADD are often inattentive, impulsive, and hyper-active--pretty good characteristics for creative types, but not so good for people who operate heavy machinery or dispense prescription medication.

Actually, people I know with ADD are quite happy with their "condition," and I'll admit they're fun to be around.  They're happy, lively, and good at delivering clever one-liners.  Still, I wouldn't want all my friends to have short-attention spans.  I need a few people in my life who at least act like they're paying attention to what I have to say, even if I'm babbling. 

I'm finding that it's getting more difficult to find people who pay attention.  The whole world, it seems, has ADD, and it's not because everyone is drinking the same kool-aid--unless the kool-aid happens to be a  Blackberry or an iPhone.  Call me an anti-luddite, but the way I see it, our collective ADD is directly related to our dependency upon--or maybe I should say our addiction to--hand-held electronic communication devices, and it's killing the practice of paying attention.

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