NYTimes covers the spreading habit of WiFi based continuous partial attention.

Out of one ear, he listens to a live presentation about cable television technology; simultaneously, he surfs the Net on a laptop with a wireless connection, while occasionally checking his mobile device %u2014 part phone, part pager and part Internet gadget %u2014 for e-mail.

As far as I am concerned people bringing their laptops and their work to meetings are about as annoying as cell-phones in a movie theater or concert hall. As with every new technology, there's a brief period of hipness before the social disgrace of not giving the people your currently around your attention really settles in. Oh, and by the way - I have yet to see a 'live-blogging' worthy of reading.

When the tech becomes a nonintrusive extension of the social situation that is another matter of course.