by Patricia Sellers
Do you text and drive?
For her new book, Alone Together, about technology's impact on personal relationships, MIT professor Sherry Turkle asked 150 adults and 300 teens "Why do you text when you drive?"
Her findings: We are addicted to the flashing red light on our BlackBerries (RIMM)--or our iPhone's (AAPL) lit screen--because here is where we find hope.
Hope in a gadget? Indeed.
Turkle's respondents told her, overwhelmingly, that IMs, texts and emails--the electronic communications caboodle--prop their egos and brighten their lives. "That's where the sweetness comes," said one respondent. "It's like Times Square in my pocketbook," another told Turkle, a clinical psychologist who directs MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self.
Others said that the BB's blinking red light signals "opportunity...something new." Turkle's translation: Electronic connections are aborting real intimacy and companionship in our lives.
It's sad and it's cynical--and when you bring automobiles into the picture, it is perilous too. Turkle and I ended our breakfast today talking about "The Last Text," an amazing video produced by AT&T (T). If you haven't seen this short film about the dangers of texting and driving, please check it out below.
It will open your eyes and break your heart. And if you're one of those drivers, it will reform you, we hope.
by Patricia Sellers
Today, two former No. 1's on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list will learn whether they have big new careers ahead -- in politics.
One is Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay (EBAY), who looks likely to win the Republican nomination for Governor. And then she'll go head to head against Democrat Jerry Brown, who has seen and done it all in California (including served as Governor). The other is MORE Patricia Sellers - Jun 8, 2010 10:52 AM ET
I thought I was dreaming.
After posting yesterday's rant against Time Warner Cable's (TWC) service "upgrade," can you imagine how I reacted at 6:30 this morning when I turned on my TV and found that all my favorite functions--which I'd thought were obliterated by the upgrade--were back in action?
Time Warner Cable (spun off recently from Time Warner (TWX), which owns Time Inc., Fortune's parent) responded to my complaining--I was sure of MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 1, 2009 3:06 PM ET
Time Warner Cable's DVR "upgrade" is a downgrade.
If you're a customer of America's second-largest cable company, as I am, you came home one day recently to find that the new "Navigator" DVR system has taken over your TV--and taken your TV viewing hostage.
You used to be able to watch a show live and--let's say, you dashed to the kitchen and missed that touchdown pass--rewind and watch it in repeat.
Now MORE
Patricia Sellers - Aug 31, 2009 4:17 PM ET
by Jessica Shambora
If 2009 has a buzz word, it's "transparency."
The consensus is that we got into this mess because a lot of people didn't know what they were signing up for: adjustable rate mortgages, arcane investment vehicles, credit cards with hidden fees. People didn't know because the products were too complicated to understand. Or they weren't transparent. Or both.
We've written about this here on Postcards: Sallie Krawcheck, ex-Citigroup (C) and MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Aug 25, 2009 12:26 PM ET
"It could well be that we are witnesses to the birth of yet another Apple ecosystem."
-- Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett in the New York Times Wednesday. After the bell, Apple (AAPL) reported a 15% jump in second-quarter net income to $1.21 billion. Sales of the iPhone surged 123% over the last quarter, with 3.79 million units sold.
"The iPhone has quieted any skeptics who thought this was a one-time event MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Apr 22, 2009 7:24 PM ET
It was, to steal a Malcolm Gladwell term, a "tipping point" in my outlook on the cratering economy. I call it my "That Girl" moment.
It was the fourth Monday in November last year. I was at a Thanksgiving party at the home of Cathie Black, the president of Hearst Magazines. Marlo Thomas was there, too. "Saks is selling shoes for 75% off. It's incredible!" TV's onetime Ann Marie was crowing, MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 27, 2009 1:01 PM ET
This was a week for fallen heroes and flailing leaders.
On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner disappointed with too few details on the new bank bailout.
On Wednesday the bank CEOs got flogged in Washington - one more indignity after schlepping there on the Delta Shuttle or Amtrak's Acela.
President Obama scored with the $789 billion stimulus bill. But it emerged, after plenty of compromise, leaner than most economists had hoped for. Obama's MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 13, 2009 3:45 PM ET
"I felt it was the right thing to do. We are a company that expects the highest performance and accountability, and that starts at the top."
- AT&T (ATT) CEO Randall L. Stephenson, in a memo to employees about forgoing his 2008 bonus. Here's a boss who (unlike the Wall Street honchos) didn't have to give it up. In fact, Stephenson's decision distinguishes him as a very different kind of leader MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 2, 2009 3:59 PM ET
by Stephanie Mehta
Pattie Sellers recently blogged about good and bad corporate behavior. Here's another example to add to the "good form" category: AT&T chief Randall L. Stephenson is forgoing his 2008 bonus.
"I asked the board not to pay me a bonus for 2008, and they approved that request," Stephenson wrote in a memo to employees. "Given the economic environment, the workforce reductions, and our earnings outlook for 2009, I felt MORE
Patricia Sellers - Feb 2, 2009 1:41 PM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
