Bliss in a Box?

Michael Bull has written a book examining the way the ipods get used by people in urban cultures. In this Wired News interview he says a number of things that are worth pondering, and particularly for Christians it is important to ponder this. "It's good to switch things off sometimes, and maybe that ability is decreasing. People take (their iPods) to Yellowstone (National) Park, or when they go watch humpback whales.... Maybe the 21st-century culture is a culture where we don't want to be alone without thoughts, so we need a mediator. The only way we can get quiet is by constructing noise."
I'm thinking about two dimensions of this: one is the use of music in public space and in 'private headspace' (via headphones) to create or enhance atmosphere; something that churches have traditionally done with organ music, for example. Another aspect thoegh is the notion of unplugging perphaps in order to attend to what is actually going on: mindfulness, if you like. The danger would be to force a choice between these things: either ambience-control or unplugged. Both have their uses. My worry would be that people lose the ability to do the latter at times: the ablity to attend to things, to contemplate is important to our ability to learn, to discover and to hear God. Do we need to add unplugging to a list of suggestions for the use of Lent.
Bliss in a Box: Professor iPod Tells How IPods Insulate City Dwellers: