No dipping into the stream

There is a new trend in software that appears to be gaining traction in today's app happy market that goes by a variety of names like "anti-distraction" or "no-distraction" software utilities. They also show that when the pendulum swings so far in one direction, money can be made by simply swinging back the opposite way. Computer and many consumer electronic devices pride themselves on the many tasks that can be handled continuously, and simultaneously, but that is not always a good thing for users who need to get things done, not twiddle around with Twitter or checking faces on Facebook.
These programs go by such names as LeechBlock and Isolator. Some fill up the screen to keep alerts that users loose focus with. Others turn off the internet or disable specific websites, with the difference being that users impose these restrictions on themselves.
Some word-processing packages such as Scrivner and Writespace have incorporated some of these programs by offering a "no distraction mode," that takes all unnecessary menus off the screen, or disables them. Other programs hide or blur everything except the active program.
For $10 a program called Freedom (Windows and Macs) will ask you how long you want to disable internet access by entering your system password and severing the feed. LeechBlock gives you the customization options that will disable some websites and allow others for those of us that need access to complete certain tasks.
Freedom designer Fred Stutzman, a graduate student in information science from the University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, comments, "Just being on-line means you have this continuous partial attention, or this sense that at any point in time, you can dip into the stream." The plethora of ways to be connected, also potentially causes a lot of distractions.
Is it interesting with so many devices touting their connectivity that there's a demand for items that disable so many features we pay money to have.
http://www.economist.com/node/16295664

Hopefully soon they'll create something like that for drivers!