Taking a break is a FEATURE now (Gmail Labs offers TakeABreak option) - the value of silence!

GMail just launched a bunch of new features which I tried out today. The most revealing one is the new Take A Break option which effectively removes you from all GMail functions for 15 mins. Arstechnica has a good overview here.  I see a really interesting trend here: making provisions to GO OFFLINE, to take a break, to disconnect, is now becoming another task, a desired feature, an added value.

No longer it's all about more more more faster better but also about reminding ourselves that we need to go offline, sometime, too... that we are human. In that sense, I guess Gmail TakeABreak embodies the value of silence.

Slowly but steady we may be moving from just having access to everything to the 'wisdom' of having only what we really need when we really need it.  See my screenshot below.