(Newser)
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When it comes to morning routines, the modern family has a new set of priorities, many of which require a screen, the New York Times reports. “It used to be you woke up, went to the bathroom, maybe brushed your teeth, and picked up the newspaper,” says an expert. Now, “I’ll be the first to admit: the first thing I do is check my email.”

East-coast Web traffic drops off from midnight to 6 am, then surges. “It’s a rocket ship that takes off at 7am,” says an analyst. Text messaging between 7 and 10am on Verizon Wireless was 50% higher this July than last. While adults are checking email, kids log on to Facebook and check texts. “They used to have blankies; now they have phones,” says one mom.

I'm not surprised, I use the input from my computer to keep from going back to sleep for about five minutes when I wake up. I have tried reading in the past, but I usually lie down for that, and go back to sleep as a result. I was pretty sure that my situation was unusual, but,well...obviously not.

cochiserocks

Aug 11, 2009 1:11 AM CDT

I think it's no coincidence that the people at the top have so many P.A.'s managers and filters that their phone only rings when it has to. ie. LESS extraneous information can lead to greater efficiency and clearer vision on the real facts. Do we check emails first thing because we need to, or because we're just getting more addicted to the whole process.