Over a decade into the rollicking era of tweets and online posts, the nation is still grappling with the mores of online speech and conduct.

If you regularly watch TV, you’ve probably seen a cartoon bear pitching you toilet paper, a gecko with a British accent selling you auto insurance and a bunny in sunglasses promoting batteries.

If you regularly watch TV, you’ve probably seen a cartoon bear pitching you toilet paper, a gecko with a British accent selling you auto insurance and a bunny in sunglasses promoting batteries.

BYU Radio/ Top of Mind with Julie Rose interviews UNLV sociology professor Simon Gottschalk: The pace of life and work has accelerated drastically in the past 70 years. Even in the last 10 years since phones got smart, things have sped up. What are the consequences of being connected and on-call all the time? Can anything be done to slow it all down?

Last week I reported the news that deaths by suicide in this country are up 25 percent since 1999. According to federal data, deaths attributed to opioid overdose and alcohol abuse are now at the highest rate in 35 years. Life expectancy in the United States has dropped two years in a row, marking the first downturn in more than two decades.

How often do you check your work email from home?

In his new book, “The Terminal Self: Everyday Life in Hypermodern Times,” University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) sociology professor Simon Gottschalk examines the social and psychological toll of increasingly online lives on work, education, family life, interactions, our sense of self, and more.

Modern life seems to encourage acceleration for the sake of acceleration – to what end?